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riRS. NAT COLLINS. 

HE Cattle Queen 



OF nONTANA. 




rORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DURING A RESIDENCE 
OF FORTY YEARS IN THE FAR WEST. 



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A STORY OF THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF MRS. NATjCOLLINS^ 

FAMIL ^LY KNOWN TO WESTERN PEOPLE AS "THE CATTLE 

QUEEN OF MONTANA" OR "THE COWBOYS' MOTHER." 

IN WHICH IS INCLUDED 

NARRATIVES OF THRILLING ADVENTURES, RECITALS OF STIRRING 

EVENTS, TALES OF HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS, ANECDOTES 

OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE 

PLAINS, THE MINES, CATTLE RAISING INDUSTRY AND 

OTHER FEATURES OF WESTERN LIFE. 

LEAENED DURING 

1 FOETT TEMS' RESIDENCE IN THE FAE WEST 



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COMPIT.ED BY 

CHARLES WALLACE. 



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ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPHS. 



ST. JAMES, MINN. 
C. W. FOOTE, PUBLISHEE. 

1894. 



PRINTEO AND BOUND B\ 

OONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, 
CHICAGO. 



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Preface. 

In presenting this work to the public the author's only 
claim is based upon the truthfulness of the narrative herein 
related, and, realizing that the simple, unpretentious lan- 
guage employed will undoubtedly meet with much more 
favor from the reading than the critic world, it is diffi- 
dently submitted. 

The sole purpose and aim is to furnish the reader with a 
truthful tale relative to the noble deeds, kindly acts and 
womanly works, as well as the hardships, thrilling experi- 
ences and discouraging trials of one of the most widely 
known and dearest loved of western women, and this 
having been accomplished, the author rests content. 

We hear much now about circumstances making us what 
we are and destroying our responsibility; but however 
much the external circumstances in which we are placed, 
the temptations to which we are exposed, the desires of 
our own nature, may work upon us, all these influences 
have a limit, which they do not pass, and that is the limit 
laid upon them by the freedom of will, which is essential 



XII 

to human nature — to our personality. 

Here will be found the passing record of a life where 
inborn noble instincts have, by the aid of a firm will and 
unflinching determination, withstood the temptations of 
rough and degrading surroundings, successfully battled with 
discouragements and bitter trials, and given to the breast 
that bore them the courage and power to pass through a 
half century of life such as but few experience, only to 
emerge from such temptations and struggles the possessor 
of the admiration, esteem and love of all by whom she is 
known. Such as are acquainted with Mrs. Collins will 
verify the truth of this assertion, and those who will study 
well this brief sketch of her life, note carefully the noble 
character portrayed and give heed to the teachings of the 
spirit of true womanhood which has guided her through 
the many and trying struggles of her western experience, 
cannot fail to reap a lasting benefit. Strongly entrenched 
in the goodness of a mother's teaching, with virtue as a 
support and truth as the firm rock upon which to stand, this 
woman has withstood the temptations of the rough and, in 
her early days, uncivilized, west, and buffeted with the vicis- 
situdes of pioneer life, never faltering, never wavering, and * 
amid all ever mindful of the teachings of a christian mother. 
Gladstone has said "To be womanly is the greatest charm 
of woman." Truer words were never spoken, and a more 
womanly woman never breathed than she of whose experi- 
ence the world will here read. 

To write a full and complete history of such a life would 
be an endless task. The more important events only must 



XIII 



be chosen. This has been the aim of the author in pre- 
paring this work, and in order that the narrative may poss- 
ess as much as possible of originality and interest the words 
of the person of whose life dealing is had have been em- 
ployed to as great an extent as possible, and every effort 
has been put forth to reproduce a true story in every essen- 
tial particular. All is the product of memory, and at no 
time is the claim made of historical authority other than in 
dealing with subjects of personal experience. 

With the sincere hope that those who peruse these pages 
will find that which not only serves to interest but at the 
same time instruct, the author awaits the verdict of such 
as honor the work with a reading. 

THE AUTHOR. 




CHAPTEK I. 

The Start for Pike's Peak — Across the Plains — Inci- 
dents OF THE Journey — Denver in an Early Day — 
Building A Home — Our "Boarding House." 

Who is there, when he turns to recall his first and fondest 
associations — when he throws off, one by one, the layers of 
earth and stone which have grown and hardened over the 
records of the past — who, I say, has not been surprised to 
discover how fresh and unimpaired those buried treasures 
rise again upon his heart? They have been laid up in the 
store-house of time^ — they have not perished; their very 
concealment has preserved them; we remove the lava, and 
the world of a gone day is before us. Thus it is as I now 
draw upon my memory for the record of the past two score 
years — for my narrative shall date from my tenth year — 
and the past comes to my mind with a clearness most sur- 
prising. Clear, distinct and prominent stand forth the rec- 
ollections of my dear christian mother, my childhood days 
and girlish associates and early surroundings. While I 
was always in reality the pet of the family — it was a small 



16 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

family, only ten — still circumstances always appeared to 
arise, with provoking frequency, which directed, or, per- 
haps more properly speaking, compelled me, to assume the 
role of "general roustabout." Were it necessary that an 
errand should be done it seemed so much easier for al] 
members of the family to speak the name of "Libby" than 
that of any other person. At times I would have consid- 
ered that I were greatly blessed had I been burdened with 
some fashionable, French-flavored, Italian-accented name 
which would have required a half-hour study of the dic- 
tionary to furnish a proper pronunciation, but Fate willed 
that I should be plain Libby Smith, and in consequence I 
went on gathering chips — and, by the way, if it be true 
that a chopper's worth is to be judged by the chips he 
makes, then I can truly say that from the time I was able 
to walk until the time I reached the age of 15 or 16, I prob- 
ably carried in my gingham apron the record of more 
really good men than appears in the whole Congressional 
Record. My life from infancy has at all times been an 
active one, both from choice and necessity, and as I now 
look backward to the past I realize that it would have been 
impossible for me to be other than a "little busy-body" for 
God in His goodness endowed me with a nature abounding 
with activity, energy and ambition, and had I been com- 
pelled to lead an indolent, hum-drum life I should have 
been the most unhappy person on earth. This fact I can 
now realize more fully than ever before, for I am now not 
only sunburnt by the glare of life, but weather-beaten by 
its blasts. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 17 

At the age of ten years I left Rockford, 111., with my 
parents, for the State of Iowa, which was at that time con- 
sidered a frontier country. My father chose as a location 
for his new home a beautiful spot on a running stream, in 
the neighborhood of what is now Madison. Here he erected 
a small log cabin, the logs for the same being drawn several 
miles. While hardships and discomforts here were as 
much a part of our regular diet as corn-bread and molasses, 
still I will pass on to the start for the far west, and the 
journey across the plains to Pike's Peak. This was the 
first important event in my life's history, and gifted indeed 
would be the pen that could describe in fitting manner the 
excitement, expectancy and bounding hopes of our little 
party as the work of preparation for the trip neared com- 
pletion and the start was about to be made. With the ex- 
ception of myself the children were left behind, four of the 
older ones being married and the others being at school. 
A yoke of oxen and also a yoke of cows were procured. 
These were attached to covered wagons loaded with camp- 
ing utensils, bedding, etc., and on a bright May day we bid 
adieu to the old home, and, turning our faces toward the 
far off west, took up our journey for the gold fields of the 
Pike's Peak country. This was over forty years ago, and 
yet the incidents of that start are as clear in my memory as 
though they were the happenings of yesterday. As the 
morning sun peered forth from his hiding place, bright and 
beautiful, the teams were brought to place and attached to 
the heavily loaded wagons. Soon the ponderous wheels 
moved slowly f oward and amid the blessings and fond fare- 



18 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

wells of friends, who had gathered to wish us God speed, 
we started on our long journey across the boundless ocean 
of prairie. What might have been the innermost feelings 
of the others of the party as we left our old home on that 
bright May morning, I am, as a matter of course, 
unable to say, but, even though I was then but a 
child, as I saw the old log cabin fade from view, and, look- 
ing forward across the broad expanse of prairie to the hor- 
izon beyond, thought and wondered of the new world to 
which we were journeying, there came to my heart a feel- 
ing of sorrow and even then I knew that the future held in 
store for us much of hardship and disappointment and 
many a bitter struggle. 

As the day wore on and new scenes arose to occupy our 
thoughts the spirits of the little party gradually brightened 
and as we halted in the evening for our first camp all were 
alive with excitement born of the novelty of the 
occasion. My mother was always one of the dearest 
women on earth, but by nature was inclined to nervousness. 
I won't say she was a scold, but I will say that the most 
perfect thing in the world is a woman's temper, and that I 
have seen some tempers much better than others. The 
long ride, the fatigue and excitement of the day had devel- 
oped to a marked degree this nervousness and with the 
halting of the teams that first evening out until all were 
sound in slumber our camp was a busy place and Little 
Lib was the "liveliest toad in the puddle." First a fire 
must be built and Lib of course must gather the fuel. Next 
in order was the unpacking of the cooking utensils, provi- 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 19 

sions, etc., and finally after many provoking mishaps the 
announcement was made that our first supper was ready. 

After these many years that picture presents itself to view 
as plainly and distinctly as the paper before me. Above 
was the star-lit heavens; from our feet there stretched far 
away to the north, the south, east and west, a vast velvety 
carpet of waving grass patterned with innumerable wild 
flowers, of brilliant hue. As we gathered around the eata- 
bles, which were placed upon a cloth spread upon the grass, 
mother and I seated ourselves upon the spring seat taken 
from the wagon, while father occupied as comfortable a 
position as possible upon the wagon tongue, and thus, as 
we partook of the meal, we talked of the riches we were to 
gather in the future, the wealth we were to possess and the 
pleasures we were to enjoy in our new home. Supper be- 
ing over, we soon sought our resting place and closed our 
eyes in slumber. 

On and on we traveled day after day until the Platte 
River was reached, at a point near Plattsmouth, Neb., and 
here we found a party of nearly a hundred wagons about to 
start for Pike's Peak. This party we joined and in a few 
days the start across the plains was made. Sunday was 
always a day of rest from travel. It was also the day se- 
lected for washing, churning, etc., and in the afternoon all 
would gather and listen to the preachings of the chaplain 
of the party, provided he did not secure a straw early in 
the day and overload his stomach with "cider vinegar." 

As chance would have it I was the only girl — or, young 
lady as I was called — in the party. Here I met my first 



20 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

young gentleman admirer, but fate, cruel fate, robbed me 
of him, and the wound — well it hasn't troubled me for some 
years. Little Johnny, a young gentleman of some 14 or 15 
summers, and I suppose a like number of winter, was badly 
smitten. Go where I would Johnny would follow. One day 
after a hard day's ride I seated myself by the roadside, 
near a bed of prickly pears. This is a plant thickly set 
with needle-like thorns, the wound from which occasions 
great pain. As I seated myself close beside one of these 
plants the wind blew my dress slightly over the same, hid- 
ing it from view. Soon my little admirer approached, and to 
make sure that I should not escape him, sat down upon my 
dress. He was not sociable that evening and soon, very 
soon was conspicuous by his absence. It is useless for me 
to say he loved me no longer. Such is friendship. 

We found the plains sandy, dry and barren. Wood was 
very hard to get and many and many a day our cooking 
was done with dry "buffalo chips." Game, such as antel- 
ope, deer and buffalo, was plentiful and easily procured. 
Of these animals the antelope is probably the most pecu- 
liar in habit, as at all times and in all places they will in- 
variably circle in front of their pursuer. Flowers were 
abundant, but birds and snakes were scarce. Indians were 
about in large number, but were, during the time of my 
first trip across the plains, quite friendly and we experi- 
enced no trouble whatever on this account. 

One Sunday, while resting, a visit was made to a large 
Indian camp for the purpose of witnessing a burial, and to 
us this was indeed a novel sight. The body was wrapped 




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A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 21 

in skins and robes, and with it was placed the trinkets, pipe, 
battle ax, spear and other personal property of the deceased, 
after which it was placed upon a platform made from poles, 
about ten or twelve feet above the ground, and there left. 
The Indian dead were invariably buried in this manner, or, 
in case timber was near, the bodies were placed amid the 
limbs of a high tree. 

Returning from witnessing the burial ceremony, we were 
accompanied by a large party of the Indians, amongst them 
being the chief's son. As I was standing near the rear of 
the wagon, busy in preparing for the evening meal, he stole 
silently to my side, and, before I was aware of his purpose 
or intent, quickly clasped me about the waist and planted 
a rousing kiss upon my cheek, stepped back and smilingly 
christened me "The White Lilly." I was surprised and 
startled and as quick as a flash gave him a ringing slap 
across the face, the force of the blow occasioning a pro- 
fuse flow of blood from his nose. At once all was excite- 
ment about the camp. The boy was angry, and, as a 
matter of course, had his sympathizers, but the chief hap- 
pened to be present, and, after hearing of the circumstance, 
looked upon the same as a joke, and, as an evidence of his 
admiration of my courage presented me with a handsome 
pony. From that day forward the name "White Lilly" 
has clung to me. 

Soon after this we reached O'Fallon's Bluff from which 
place we caught our first glimpse of Pike's Peak, and, 
although we were still distant nearly 100 miles from onr 
journey's end, still all felt that our weary traveling was 



22 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Hearing a close. At the end of six week's time from the 
start at the Platte River we reached Denver — or, rather, 
what is now Denver. At that time the only evidence of 
settlement was a small log cabin and one or two tents occu- 
l^ied by campers. Our first camping place was at a point 
midway between the foot-hills and the river, beneath the 
shade of a large, lone tree, and here it was that father decid- 
ed to erect his first house. In company with him I left in a 
few days for the mountains for the first load of house logs. 
The box was taken from the wagon, the ox team attached, 
a sack of j^rovisions tied to the axle, and, seated on the 
"reach" of the wagon, we traveled fifteen miles before com- 
ing to a place where suitable timber was to be found. Our 
first logs were cut from timber on a high ridge, amid the 
most beautiful surroundings imaginable. The soil was of a 
redish clay nature, thickly covered with a lovely pine for- 
est, through which little brown squirrels scampered from 
limb to limb and countless beautiful birds flitted from tree 
to tree. The odor from the pine, delightful in its intensity, 
operated upon the weary body and mind almost as an 
opiate, 'and, looking about upon the beautiful, vari-colored 
wild flowers, and surrounded thus on every side by primi- 
tive Nature, I felt almost that heaven had been reached 
and that henceforth all would be sunshine, happiness and 
repose. 

For three days father was occupied in the work of 
chopping, trimming and loading, our nights being passed 
during this time in a little hut built of pine boughs. At 
last we were ready for the start home. Seven large logs 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 23 

comprised the load. All went well for a short distance 
but, in going down a steep incline, the wagon "reach" 
broke and the entire load, oxen, father and myself went 
rolling down the hill. Fortunately no serious damage 
was done, and, after much sweating, puffing and strong talk- 
ing on father's part, the work of reloading was accom- 
plished. Again was fate against us, for we had traveled 
but a mile or so further when the oxen suddenly cramped 
the wagon and over it went. Again the work of loading 
had to be done over. This was finally accomplished. 
About five miles from Denver it was necessary for us to 
cross the river. In attempting to do this we missed the 
fording place a short distance and were soon on our way 
down the stream. I was commanded by father to crawl 
out upon one of the oxen, and this I did, mounting "old 
Buck" after a fashion identical with that of a clothes pin 
on a clothes line. Father swam by the side of one of the 
' oxen, holding onto the animal's tail and we finally reached 
the opposite shore several rods below the proper fording 
point, but fortunately at a place where the bank sloped 
back from the river, and soon had the team and load safe 
ashore. Thus was the first load of logs secured for our 
Denver mansion. This trip required eight days, and but 
seven logs were secured. 

The work of hauling logs and building the house was 
more than father could accomplish alone, and, being with- 
out sufficient funds to allow of the hiring of help, the 
necessity arose of earning money in some way. Finally 
mother came to the rescue by volunteering to take board- 



24 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

ers. Our only table as yet was a large stump and our only 
cook stove the camp fire, but even though food may not be 
served upon Damask table linen nor cooked upon a nickel- 
plated range, still it is a necessity at all times and places, 
and we soon found plenty who were satisfied to put up with 
the accommodations offered and pay therefor at the rate of 
$16 per week for meals alone. In this way funds were 
raised to pay for help in hauling the logs and building the 
house. By winter it was habitable. 

When finished the house contained two rooms the entire 
structure being about 18x24 feet in size. Lumber was 
worth $1.00 -per foot, and, owing to this fact, but half of 
the size of one of the rooms was floored. Two windows, 
8x10, costing $1.00 each, furnished light for the interior. 
Thus did we start in our new home and such was my 
initial experience in the far west. 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 25 



CHAPTEK II. 

A Long, Deeaey Wintee — Off foe the Gold Fields 
OF New Mexico — Incidents of the Joueney — The 

WOEK OF CeOSSING THE MOUNTAINS — OUE FiNAL 

Camping Place — Peospeoting Begun. 

Tlie winter was indeed a long, dreary and discouraging 
one. During the early winter months mother was stricken 
with the mountain fever, and in order that she might be 
made as comfortable as possible, was removed to the cabin 
of a neighbor who had just completed a more comfortable 
and better house than father's. This left me at home to ao 
the housework alone, and, as we still retained our boarders, 
the task was far from being an easy one. Our food was all 
cooked over a fire place and at times it would seem that my 
face was fairly blistered from the heat and my eyes 
blinded by smoke. But to complain was never one of my 
traits of nature, neither was the expression "give up" ever 
included in my limited vocabulary, and I struggled on, 



26 THE CATTLE QUEEiq" OF MON-TANA. 

hoping ever that better times and more comforts would 
soon fall to my lot. Our old home in the States was seldom 
heard from. Mail was carried only by horsemen, the pos- 
tage on a letter being 25 cents, and seldom did we hear 
from those we had left behind. Our amusements and 
recreations were only such as we created for ourselves, 
and it is needless to say life under such circumstances was 
far from enjoyable. Still all battled manfully against dis- 
couragement and with the coming of spring all were ready 
to take up the battle anew and enter with zest into the 
struggle for wealth. 

In the early spring there came to our house a very 
sick man who asserted that he was a stranger in a 
strange land, and entreated that he be allowed to remain in 
our midst until he was able to travel. Mother had by this 
time recovered from her sickness, and, prompted by the 
instincts of a true womanly heart, consented to shelter and 
care for him. But a few weeks passed ere he had recovered. 
During the time he had been our guest, he related glowing 
accounts of rich mines he had discovered in New Mexico, 
and soon succeeded in spreading throughout the entire 
camp or settlement a species of "gold fever" of the most 
approved and irritating character, and by the latter part of 
April he had formed a company of from 150 to 200, who at 
once prepared to leave Denver and visit the gold fields of 
which he told. Shovels, picks, gold pans, provisions, etc., 
were procured and all made ready for the journey. On one 
of the last days of April or the first days of May — I do not 
recollect the exact date — the long wagon train wound 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 27 

slowly away and farewells were said to those remaining on 
the old camping ground. The first night out from Denver, 
camp was pitched on Cherry Creek, a stream so called from 
the fact of its banks being timbered exclusively with cherry 
trees. From Oherry Creek, southward bound, the caravan 
slowly passed on across a vast expanse of dry, sandy prairie, 
no water, no shade being found until the stream known as 
Fountain Caboyeau was reached. Here good feed and 
water was encountered, but before reaching this place we 
were overtaken by one of those much dreaded hot wind 
storms which at times prevail in that section of country. 
To describe the suffering which people and stock undergo 
during one of these dreadful periods is beyond my power. 
Our hands and faces were burned and blistered, our lips 
swollen and parched to such an extent as to render eating 
almost a physical impossibility, and as we neared the banks 
of the river the stock became unmanageable, and, with 
their tongues protruding from their mouths, parched and 
swollen, broke from under control and regardless of wagons 
or packs plunged headlong through the brush down the 
bank into the river below. Considerable damage was 
done to wagons and contents, but three or four days proved 
sufficient time for repairs and we were soon again under 
way. 

On the evening of our arrival at this point, after 
camp had been made I proceeded to the river for the pur- 
pose of procuring a vessel of water. It was just at dark, 
and as I passed along a narrow path to the brink of the 
stream, I was somewhat startled to see just before me the 



28 . THE CATTLE QtJEEK OE MONTANA. 

gleaming, glistening eyes of a wild animal. I paused 
abruptly, and, keeping my eyes steadily fixed upon those 
of the animal in front, I called for the men at camp, at the 
same time standing perfectly motionless. Almost as I 
spoke the animal sprang at me and only by stooping quick- 
ly did I escape being caught by its paws. It passed on up 
the path and the foremost of the party from camp, who 
had heard my cry and started to my rescue, caught a 
glimpse of its flaring eyes as it neared him and by a well 
directed shot killed the beast. It proved to be a mountain 
lion, and upon measurement was found to be over six feet 
in length from "tip to tip." 

Another incident of our stay at this place worthy 
of mention was the stampeding of a large number of elk 
by the hot winds. The animals had been overtaken by one 
of these storms and, running before its blasts, plunged into 
a large thicket of cacti upon the banks of the river. As 
they struggled to free themselves from the torturing situa- 
tion into which they had blindly rushed the very earth 
trembled from their bellowing and frantic plunges. The 
plants at this place grew to a height of probably five or six 
feet, the main stalk being probably, on an average, some 
five inches in diameter, and the limbs or branches from 16 
to 18 inches in length. The thorns were in the neighbor- 
hood of an inch in length, and a wound inflicted by one of 
these would cause the most intense pain. 

After repairs had been made the journey was again 
resumed, an open prairie country being passed over, until 
the Arkansas river was reached. Here again we stopped 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 29 

for repairs, and it was here I first saw a Mexican woman. 
From this point on to the range of mountains which we 
were obliged to cross in order to reach our destination the 
country was sandy, rocky and broken. The road was hard 
to travel and but slow progress was made. Arriving at the 
mountains, camp was located at the base and preparations 
made to cross the range. In the way of timber, balsam 
fiir and pitch pine were abundant, while, in the way of 
vegetation, luxuriant grasses and numerous varieties of 
wild flowers covered the ground. The ascent of the moun- 
tain was a work of no small magnitude. Several teams 
were required to pull a single wagon, which, after being 
hauled to the top of the range would be left and another 
gone after. 

While this work was going on I one day pre- 
ceeded the wagons and company, some considerable dis- 
tance, reaching the summit of the mountains in advance of 
the main company. Well was I repaid for my labors, and, 
happy indeed would I be could I take you, dear reader, to 
the spot in person and there point out to you the beauties 
of animal and vegetable life there witnessed. Upon the 
towering cliffs sported a herd of mountain sheep, skipping 
lightly from rock to rock in as confident and fearless a 
manner as if they were treading upon level ground instead 
of leaping through space across chasms of unlimited depth. 
These animals are creamy white, rather larger than ordinary 
tame sheep, and are provided by nature with enormous 
horns, gracefully curved in a single turn about the face. 
These horns develop to an enormous size and at times the 



BO THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

animal bearing them is borne down by their weight, 
and lying down for rest, finds itself unable to arise. About 
my feet grew beautiful wild flowers, among the pines were 
to be seen the beautiful white, red-eyed quail which fre- 
quent this locality. Here also were flocks of "fool hens", a 
bird resembling the ordinary prairie chicken, which will 
sit quietly upon the limb of a tree and allow the hunter to 
approach and knock them from their perch with a whip or 
stick. Huckleberries were present in jorofusion, growing 
luxuriantly within probably fifty feet of a huge snow bank. 
As I turned to retrace my steps to camp, the thought 
occurred to me that a "mess" of huckleberries would be 
relished by father and mother and starting through a small 
grove of timber at my left, in search of a spot where the 
berries were plentiful, I suddenly came in close proximity 
to a large black bear. The animal was a curiosity to me, 
for, being as I was as yet, a "pilgrim" from the States, I 
was not aware of the nature of the beast. Acting upon 
the impulse of the moment, to drive the animal from the 
patch of berries, where it was quietly feeding, I picked a 
rock from the ground and hurled it. The aim was good 
and it landed fairly in his ribs. Immediately the bear 
assumed an upright position and proceeded at a rambling, 
although swift gait, in my direction. I stood my ground 
for an instant, but perceiving that he did not hesitate, and 
being by this time fully convinced that to retreat was now 
my only chance, I made haste to get from the spot as rap- 
idly as possible. My pursuer still continued the chase and 
soon the fun was on in earnest. As I ran, my toe caught 




Head of Mouniain Sheep. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 81 

a twig and I fell flat, but it was the work of but an instant 
to regain my feet and again fly from the animal who was 
by this time almost upon me. I knew now that my only 
chance for life was to mount a tree if possible and thus get 
beyond Bruin's reach, and, acting upon the thought, I direct- 
ed my course to a small pine and by quick work and strict 
application to the labor in which I was engaged succeeded 
in gaining a place of safety upon one of the limbs ere the 
bear had reached the foot of the tree. The maneuver, I 
have every reason to believe, was not executed in the most 
graceful manner imaginable, but haste was the essential 
feature and as I succeeded in accomplishing the object 
sought I was well satisfied to think I had escaped my pur- 
suer in any manner. The bear took up a position at the 
foot of the tree and there for hour after hour he sat, growl- 
ing and licking his lips, and watching me as I sat on the 
slender li&b just out of the reach of his paws. Several 
times he attempted to climb the tree, but the trunk of the 
pine was too small to allow of his succeeding in the at- 
tempt and try as he would he could not reach me. The 
afternoon had passed and the sun had sunk from view ere 
I heard my mother's voice calling in the distance, I an- 
swered, informing her of my situation and in a short time a 
party came to my rescue and succeeded in killing the ani- 
mal. By this time half the train had reached the summit 
of the range, the remaining half still being at the foot of 
the mountain. 

Much difficulty was experienced here in boiling water 
for cooking purposes, the air being so light that the liquid 



32 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

would evaporate before reaching a sufficiently high tem- 
perature to boil. Many of the members of the party were 
greatly affected by the lightness of the air and many of the 
horses bled profusely at the nose from the same cause. 

The arduous task of reaching the top of the range hav- 
ing been accomplished without serious mishap, prepara- 
tions were at once made for the descent to the plains of 
Pueblo. Ropes were brought forth and securely fastened 
to the rear of the wagon to be let down the grade, and by 
wrapping the rope about the body of a tree and loosening 
the same slowly the wagon was allowed to move gradually 
down the side of the mountain until the end of the rope 
had been reached, when the wheels would be blocked, the 
rope wrapped about a tree lower down and the wagon 
again be allowed to descend. In this way the wagons 
were one by one taken to the foot of the mountain and 
finally the work of crossing the range was at an end. 

The miner of whom I have spoken as being the organ- 
izer of the party and who was looked upon as the leader 
and guide of the train, now began to manifest signs of un- 
easiness, and this circumstance soon served to arouse the 
suspicions of several of the party that matters were not as 
he had represented them to be. Close watch was kept of 
his actions and no opportunity was afforded him to escape 
from the company. 

After a rest of three days at the foot of the mountains, 
during which time search was made for the hidden treas- 
ure of which the men were told, it was decided to move on 
across the plains of Pueblo to the foot of another spur of 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 33 

the range. On the way across these plains Port Pueblo 
was passed and a short stop made. Passing on about five 
miles, the company went into camp again, and prospecting 
,was commenced in earnest. 

At the end of a week's time the men were becoming 
greatly discouraged, and, after a lengthy council the miner 
who had induced them to undertake the journey was in- 
formed that unless he led them to the mines of which he 
had told within a reasonably short time, his life would 
pay the penalty of failure. With apparent sincerity he 
asserted that his inability to find the mines was owing to 
their having, after first discovery, been covered carefully 
to remove all possibility of their being found and taken 
possession of by others. He still expressed belief in his 
ability to find them provided he was allowed more time 
for search. His apparent sincerity and truthfulness 
coupled with the fact that at about this time Kit Carson, 
the celebrated western scout, visited camp and exhibited 
numerous nuggets of gold which he had received from the 
Indians in that vicinity, in a measure again restored confi- 
dence and hope in the breasts of the men and with renewed 
vigor the work of prospecting was again taken up. A few 
days of prospecting resulted in the finding of several spec- 
imens of quite rich quartz and for a time the company 
were in quite good spirits. But after a time they again be- 
came somewhat discouraged and it was decided to divide 
the camp, one party to remain where they were and the 
other party to move around the foot of the mountain to the 
opposite side, in order that more territory might be cov- 



34 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



ered. This move was executed, and for a time I shall now 
wander from the subject of the mines and speak of sights, 
scenes and subjects foreign thereto 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 85 



CHAPTER III. 

Mexican Homes — The Favorite Food of the Mexicans 
— A Day of Adventures — The Navahoe Indians — 
A Visit to Their Village — How Their Homes are 
Built and the Manner in Which They Live. 

One of the most interesting topics which occurs to me is 
that of the appearance of the Mexican homes and their in- 
habitants. The houses at that time were almost without 
exception built of sod cut in squares and laid one upon 
another after the fashion of a brick wall. The interior 
was about six feet high, and as a rule the houses contained 
but one room. The floors were made by splitting logs 
squarely in the center, the flat surface being placed up- 
ward. These were called "puncheons." All cooking was 
done over a fire-place — nearly all the cooking utensils being 
of stone. A favorite dish with these people I found to be 
made by boiling corn in lime water until the hull could be 
easily removed, as is done in preparing hominy. The corn 



36 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

is then dried and pounded between rocks until quite fine. 
Red peppers are raised in abundance. These are dried 
and pounded into flour in the same manner as the corn. 
Mutton is boiled and the broth thickened with the corn 
and red pepper flours until quite thick, and is eaten by 
those people with great relish. A fair idea of the amount 
of red peppers used by the Mexicans may be arrived at by 
considering the fact that their bodies are so impregnated 
by the vegetable that after death they dry rather than de- 
cay, and a wild animal, which would devour with avidity 
the body of other than they, will pass them by without 
molestation. 

The Mexican ladies as a rule are very handsome, and 
dress both neatly and tastily. They are small in stature, 
with very small hands and feet, brilliant black eyes, heavy 
hair of midnight darkness, pearly white teeth, and snowy 
white faces, neck and hands. Their dresses are usually 
quite short, and of dark-colored goods, with loose waist, 
tight fitting at the neck, and drawn in at the waist. All 
wear a sash thrown over one shoulder and thence around 
the waist, where it is tied with a sailor knot. These sash- 
es are the pride of the Mexican women. They are made 
from the nnest silk, highly colored and decorated at the 
ends with a fringe nearly if not quite half a yard deep. 

Life in camp during the time the male members of the 
party were busily at work was as a rule very quiet and 
somewhat monotonous, although, perhaps, no one noticed 
this state of affairs less than I, owing to the fact that I was 
always one of the most active in the company. Fa'r eem- 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 37 

ed to decree that it should be my lot to be more frequent- 
ly than others implicated in stirring events. Thus it was 
in my very childhood and thus it has been to the present 
day, but the kind hand of God has always appeared to over- 
shadow me and encircle me with a protection through 
which harm could not penetrate. 

Some little time after the parting of the camps it became 
necessary for me one morning to visit the opposite camp 
for the purpose of procuring some medicine for my father 
who had come to camp from the mountains, where he had 
been prospecting, quite sick. Happy in the thought that 
I was to have a short vacation from camp life and enjoy 
the exhilarating and exciting pleasure of a walk around 
the mountain, through the forest, and never for a moment 
thinking of possible dangers which I might encounter on 
the way, I set forth, with a happy heart, gaily humming 
a favorite song, and choosing as my pathway a well-beaten 
game trail which ran around the side of the mighty mound 
some little way above its base. For some considerable dis- 
tance I had proceeded on my way, oblivious of all sur- 
roundings and totally absorbed by the pleasant sense of 
freedom from restraint, which at all times I so heartily en- 
joy, when I was aroused from my meditations by the deep 
growl of a wild beast. Raising my eyes I found myself 
standing face to face with a huge mountain lion who was 
enjoying a morning meal of mountain sheep, as he lay in 
the game trail scarcely 50 feet distant from me. For an 
instant I was spellbound and unable to move hand or foot, 
and then there came to me the thought of my father's suf- 



THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



fering and at once I resolved to make my way past this liv- 
ing barrier and never turn back until I had accomplished 
the mission upon which I had set forth. Had I been en- 
gaged in any other errand I should probably have hesitat- 
ed ere I attempted the daring feat, but the thought of my 
father's need nerved me on to do that which nothing else 
on earth could have induced me to do. From my very in- 
fancy my father's love had been my most precious posses- 
sion. For him I would at any time in my life have sacri- 
ficed every pleasure, desire, or precious thing, for no child 
ever could bear for parent more deep, sincere and undying 
love than did I for my dear old grey- haired father. To 
him were my troubles always told and my fondest hopes 
always related and from him was ever received a kind word 
and loving, tender caress. This, and much of a like nature 
flashed as swiftly through my mind as the lightning's vivid 
glare and had I known that to move one step forward would 
have been to invite instant and terrible death, I truly be- 
lieve that at that moment I would have considered it a 
privilege to take that step. 

With my eyes steadfastly fixed upon those of the beast 
who barred my path I slowly, carefully and steadily reached 
down, untied and removed my shoes from my feet. Never 
for a moment turning my gaze from the foe in front I made 
my way carefully to the right and gradually circled 
about the lion, keeping above the beast and exer- 
cising great care in the matter of loosening rocks 
or dirt which would roll down the incline upon or close to 
him. Without mishap I gained the trail farther along on 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 39 

my way, and, after having proceeded with haste to a point 
which I considered a safe distance from my enemy I 
replaced my shoes upon my feet and hastened on. 

For probably half an hour or so I continued on, thinking 
the while of my adventure, and ere I were hardly aware of 
the fact I had neared the base of the mountain near the 
opposite side and was within sight of the smoke from the 
camp to which I was bound. Below me, some 25 or 30 
feet, ran a clear, swift mountain stream, and about me on 
every hand was the beautiful pine forest, underlaid by a 
sea of heavy, waving grass and flowers. Unconsciously I 
paused to drink in the grandeur of the scene, and listlessly 
sank to rest upon the greensward at my feet. Thus for 
some moments had I been occupied, when, as I glanced 
from spot to spot, I was not only surprised but at the same 
time spellbound with admiration as my sight centered up- 
on a scene a short distance from me. Amid the trees, just 
below me lay a beautiful animal fondling her two young 
cubs which playfully bounded about her in their sport. 
Springing lightly from side to side and then bounding 
playfully within her reach, she would clasp them in her 
paws, and, drawing them to her as a fond mother a loved 
child, she would embrace and caress them tenderly and 
lovingly. I had no realization of my danger; I was think- 
ing only of the scene before me, and therefore the sharp 
report of a rifle and the warning cry, "Lib, run; for God's 
sake run for your life!" came as a thunderbolt from a clear 
sky and I sprang to my feet with a bound. As I did so, 
through the trees below the animals I caught the glimpse 



iO THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

of a man, and as I paused for the instant my heart ceased 
its beating, for even as I looked the tiger sprang upon him, 
alighting fairly upon his shoulders and bore him to the 
earth. 

The struggle was a most terrible one, and drawn on by 
the cries of the struggling man and the desire to render aid, 
I ran quickly to the spot. As the tiger had sprung upon 
him the attacked man was just in the act of shooting, but 
the force of the blow as the animal struck him had loosened 
his grasp upon his trusty revolver, and it now lay upon the 
ground near the struggling pair. His repeated cries for 
help nerved me on, and, picking up the weapon, and ap^ 
proaching as near as possible, I leveled, aimed and fired, 
thinking as I did so that were the bullet to miss the animal 
and find lodging place in the body of the mangled man it 
would be a circumstance which might be looked upon more 
as a blessing than as a subject of regret, as he was by this 
time most terribly wounded and exhausted and were the 
battle to be continued would soon be at the mercy of the sav- 
age beast. My first shot failed of touching the animal and 
instead ploughed deeply into the fleshy part of the man's 
thigh. Again I fired, and with the second shot the beast 
loosened its hold, trembled an instant, and, rolling to one 
side, stretched full length upon the grass, mortally wound- 
ed and dying. 

Seeing that nothing more was to be feared from it, I 
hastened to the stream near by and filled one of my shoes 
with water, and, returning with all possible haste, bathed 
the face of the wounded and now unconscious man, and 




03 

a 

a 
o 

o 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 41 



tearing strips from my apron and dress bound as best I 
could the gaping wounds. Leaving him thus I climbed to 
a large rock upon the side of the mountain and with all my 
power cried aloud for help, at the same time discharging^ 
the revolver in the air. My efforts were productive of 
quick results, for almost at the first my cries were heard by 
those in the camp and a party at once hastened to the 
scene. The wounded man was carried to the camp, his 
wounds were dressed by the train doctor, and in the course 
of time he fully recovered, although during the balance of 
his life his face, head and neck were badly disfigured by 
ugly scars. 

"Say, boys," he would often say, "you can talk about 
grit and sand, but that air little white-headed, freckled- 
faced gal has got more sand than all 'o you fellers put to- 
gether," and I truly believe that to his dying day that man 
considered me the bravest woman on earth. Well, I be- 
lieve I am as brave as most women, but still I must admit 
a little, squeaking, scampering mouse will induce me 
to seek the highest chair in the room with great haste, and 
that force of habit leads me to peer under the bed regular- 
ly every night upon retiring. 

The return to home camp was made in company with a 
small party who volunteered to escort me safely around the 
mountain and with pride I delivered the medicine I had 
been commissioned to procure. 

Father soon recovered, his ailment being but a slight 
one, and soon again camp life became a weary drag to me. 
Obtaining permission from mother, I one morning started 



42 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



forth upon a fishing excursion up the little creek upon 
which we were camped. Proceeding some distance up the 
stream, I soon discovered a desirable location for indulg- 
ence in the pleasant pastime and was soon busy at work 
with hook and line. Trout were plentiful and in the course 
of an hour or so I had secured a fine string of the speckled 
beauties. As I was about to abandon the sport and return 
to camp my ear caught the sound of voices, and as I sat 
listening they appeared to grow nearer and nearer and 
soon there appeared in sight a party of Indian children, 
headed by a young girl of about my own age. At sight of 
me they paused an instant and then slowly advanced until 
they had reached my side. With eyes fixed closely upon 
my face they would walk about me, chattering and jabbering 
in their native language and after a time they ventured to 
touch my extended hand. We soon became friends and as 
soon as I had convinced them of my friendliness they 
would kiss my hands, fall at my feet upon their knees and 
in every possible manner endeavor to convince me that I 
was not only admired but at the same time worshipped by 
them. For an hour or so we enjoyed each other's company 
and in parting gathered a pile of rocks to mark the spot 
where we should meet the following day. I returned home, 
bearing her present, a beautiful collection of rubies, and 
on the following day returned to the appointed spot. Here 
I found my little friend awaiting me with flowers and beads 
and hand in hand we wandered from rock to rock, convers- 
ing as best we could in the language of signs. As we were 
thus engaged we were approached by an Indian Chieftan 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 43 

and I was soon made to understand that the child with 
whom I was passing the day was the daughter of the chief 
of the tribe whose village was but a short distance from 
our camp. He also kissed my hand and reverently laid 
his hand upon my curls and patted tenderly my cheeks and 
face. Taking them both by the hand I started in the 
direction of our camp. At first they hesitated, but soon 
we started on. 

Arriving at camp we found all in an uproar. One of the 
women, in walking about the place had encountered a 
tarantula and been bitten by the insect and was reported as 
being in a dying condition. Leaving his child, as a guar- 
antee of his return, the chief mounted a horse and galloped 
away. In a short time he returned, bringing with him a 
package of dried herbs. A portion of these he dampened 
and bound upon the wound and inside of a day or two the 
woman had fully recovered. These insects are the most 
dreaded of all animal kind in that section of country, 
although almost equally poisonous are the large, black, 
spider-like insect known as the centipede. A wound 
from either of these is almost certain to result in 
death, although as above noted, the Indians are in posses- 
sion of the knowledge of a native herb, which, if applied 
in time, will operate as an antidote to the poison of the 
insect's sting or bite. 

At the expiration of a few day's time my newly-found 
friends, the Indian chief and his daughter, again visited 
camp, bringing with them several ponies. Their mission 
was soon made known by signs and motions. Taking me 



44 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

by the hand he would point in the direction of their village 
and at the same time motion towards his daughter and the 
ponies. We soon understood that he wished me to pay his 
home a visit and that as a guarantee of my safe return his 
daughter and the ponies should be left at our camp. After 
much entreaty on my part my parents finally consented to 
the proposed arrangment upon the condition that one of 
the party of men should accompany me. This the chief 
deemed satisfactory, and, kissing all good bye, I started 
forth by the chief's side. 

The village was soon reached, and such a village as it 
was. No system whatever had been employed in the locat- 
ing of the dwellings, as regards regularity or streets. The 
houses were all of from three to four stories in height, built 
exclusively of cut sod, laid up as walls and plastered with 
a peculiar clay found in that vicinity, which when exposed 
to the air, assumes a snowy white color and hardens to the 
stability of rock. None of the houses were provided with 
windows other than small port holes about the upper part 
of each story. From the ground to the top of the first 
story the distance was some seven or eight feet, at which 
height a jog or pathway was built. Each story was thus 
set back from and made smaller than the one below it, and 
the homes all presented the appearance of square boxes 
piled one upon another — the one at the bottom being the 
largest, the next a size smaller, and so on to the top. 

To enter these habitations it was necessary to mount a 
ladder to the top of the first story, the ladder was then 
drawn up from below and so placed that the top of the 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 45 

next story might be reached and thus was the climbing 
continued until the top of the dwelling was reached. The 
ladder was then lowered on the inside and the descent from 
floor to floor made in a like manner. A trap door was pro- 
vided at the extreme upper point, with a secure fastening 
on the inside, so that a person once inside, with the door 
"locked" was secure from all intruders. 

Taking me by the hand, and leaving my companion on 
the ground below, the chief led me, stage by stage, up the 
outer wall and down the inside to the lower floor. I was 
the first white person, so I was given to understand, that 
had ever entered one of these houses or even the village, 
and was, as a matter of course, much of a curiosity to the 
people. 

I can, in memory, feel my flesh creep and my blood 
cease coursing through my veins as I entered that wretched 
hut. Great posts stood about the room — placed there as 
supports for the floors above — and from these were stretched 
rude bark and skin hammocks, covered with an abundance 
of robes and skins of wild animals. The female inhabi- 
tants were seated about the room, or more properly speak- 
ing hole, busily engaged at various occupations — some 
preparing wool for weaving, by carding and plucking the 
same with their fingers; others twisting the prepared wool 
into yarn, and still others busily at work braiding buck- 
skin strings into whips. These were all seated upon robes 
and skins upon one side of the room and were dressed after 
the style of many of the more barbarous tribes of the 
tropic climes, but a small percentage of them wearing other 



46 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



than the dusky garb of nature. The children were abso- 
lutely naked. On the opposite side of the room were to be 
seen the provisions, piled around and about the rude fire- 
place where the cooking was done, coarse, uncoutn baskets 
being used to contain the same. By the gloomy ligliC 
which pervaded the apartment I could discern the nature 
of these to be dried fish and roots, preserved berries and 
dried grasshoppers. The entire abode was dark, damp and 
dismal, and, owing to imperfect ventilation, and the filth 
and smoke, the air was heavily laden with a sickening odor, 
which, acting in conjunction with the excitement of the oc- 
casion, soon overpowered me and but a few moments after 
entering the wretched place I became dizzy and sick and 
fainted. 

Upon awakening from unconsciousness my first realiza- 
tion of surroundings was that I was being held in the arms 
of my companion from the camp, who had remained on 
the outside upon the ground, where I had been carried by 
the chief. We hastened back to camp, but for several days 
I experienced a dizziness and faintness as a result of my 
visit to that wretched hovel. 

How human beings can thus live is beyond explanaticn. 
This is "love in a cottage," with intense and prolonged 
accent upon the word cottage. 

The chief and his daughter were invited to remain and 
partake of our evening meal and accepted the invitation. 
Upon leaving for their homes that night, they presented 
me with several tokens of friendship which I have always 
retained in remembrance of my first visit to a Navahoe 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 47 

village. They were from that time forward during our 
stay in that vicinity frequent visitors and never failed to 
bring, as tokens of friendship, rubies, gold nuggets or 
other valuable articles. 

Their chief industry is the weaving of beautiful blank- 
ets, tastily colored, and so carefully made as to possess the 
quality of being used as a receptacle and vessel for carry- 
ing water for days at a time without wetting through. 
They are woven from home-grown wool, colored with dyes 
made from the roots of trees and herbs gathered by the 
Indians themselves, and several months of steady work is 
required in the making of a single blanket. When com- 
pleted their value ranges from $50 to $100. One of these 
beautiful works of art was included in the list of presents 
I received from the chief and his daughter, and is dearly 
prized as a keepsake, although I am free to admit that its 
presence recalls other than the most pleasant recollections 



48 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Punishment of the Deceitful Minee — Return to Den- 
ver — Death of Father the Following Spring — 
Brother Killed by Indians — Denver at That Time 
— A Narrow Escape — Carl Woods, Gambler, Shot. 

From the time camp was located and up to the date of 
the transpiring of these latter events of which I have just 
written, some little time had elapsed and we will now re- 
. turn to the subject of the old miner and prospector hereto- 
fore mentioned. Close watch had been kept of him to prevent 
his escape from the party; diligently had the men searched 
for the mines and prospecting had been going on continu- 
ously but without satisfactory results. All were now con- 
vinced that they had been deceived and misled and amongst 
them there prevailed a spirit of anger which bid fair to re- 
sult disastrously to the man who had led them on this 
long, fruitless search. This feeling of anger and desire 
for vengeance finally resulted in the calling of a council of 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 49 

the party at whicli it was decided to hang the miner. 

The two camps had been called together, and the most 
intense excitement prevailed. I shall never be able to 
blot from my memory the sight of that miserable wretch 
as he cried and prayed for mercy. On bended knee, with 
hands uplifted and eyes turned to look up into those of 
the desperate men about him, he begged, pleaded and 
prayed for life. But from their lips would come curses in 
return; from their eyes flashed gleams of anger; and their 
only reply would be, "Pray, damn you, pray, you old hypo- 
crite for you will never pray again. You shall never live 
to deceive another party." 

At last the word was given to move forward to a deep 
gulch some half mile from camp, where the "bee" as the 
men termed it was to take place. The miner was com- 
manded to arise and walk. He arose to his feet, reeled an 
instant and with a cry of anguish fell fainting to the ground, 
completely overcome by fright and fear of death. Stepping 
up to him one of the party gave him a brutal kick in the 
side. 

Springing from the group of crying women and children 
which stood about, I myself knelt by the side of the pros- 
trate man and with tears streaming down my cheeks I 
asked that his life might be spared. Earnestly and with 
sincerity and all the power of my aching heart I pleaded 
with those angered men that human life be not taken, and 
as I knelt there thus begging for the life of that miserable 
man there appeared to come to my aid an inspiration from 
the throne of God; my lips were moved to utter words 



r- 



50 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

savored with tlie intensity of human kindness, and as I 
spoke to them of the terrible act they were about to do, 
the awful crime they were about to commit, their 
angry eyes flashed less brilliantly, their clenched hands un- 
consciously relaxed and fell to their side, shame spread its 
mantle over their flushed faces and they stood with bowed 
heads and gave heed to my entreaties. 

Taking me gently by the hand they led me away, prom- 
ising the while that the life of the man for whom I had 
pleaded should be spared. Up the gulch they half carried, 
half dragged the frightened man, stopping beneath a huge 
pine. Here they bound him securely and upon his bared 
back showered blow after blow with switches. 

But the punishment although severe was administered 
more in the spirit of that of a fond parent in chastising a 
refractory child, than in the spirit of anger and brutality. 
Cutting the thongs which bound him they returned to 
camp, and, after a brief consultation decided to abandon 
the search for the mines and return to Denver. 

That evening, as darkness spread her mantle over and 
about us I stole silently from the camp, to the side of the 
unfortunate man, and as I neared the tree, far up the deep, 
dark gulch, he raised upon his elbow and called my name. 
I had come provided with a small amount of provisions and 
a canteen of water and this I gave him, bathing the 
wounds upon his back and placing within his reach — for 
he was so weakened as to be unable to scarcely move — the 
clothing of which he had been divested by the men. Thus 
I left him, and as I moved away in the darkness there fol- 




Lover's Tetnat." 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 51 

lowed me from that lonely tree a "God bless you child/' 
which in tone and expression was as the fond, loving fare- 
well of the parent who feels life fading slowly away and 
sees the orphan child left to battle the world alone. 

The preparatory work for the return to Denver was at 
once put in motion and ere a week had passed the train 
was ready to move upon the return journey. All werp 
anxious to reach the old camping ground or settlement, 
and, urged on by this desire, more than ordinary haste was 
made. Re-crossing the range at the point at which we 
first crossed, at the very summit, lying by the side of the 
trail or road was the body of a murdered Mexican. A halt 
was made, the body given decent burial, and again we pro 
ceeded onward. 

While the southward trip had been far from a pleasant 
one, still the return was far more disagreeable, as it was 
new getting very late in the fall, the entire summer having 
been passed in the search for the mines, and the chilling 
winds, blasting frosts and dismal rains of the early winter 
season were in prevalence. It is needless, therefore to 
assert that it was with a feeling of rejoicing and thankful- 
ness that we found ourselves drawing close to our journey's 
end and finally, upon reaching the crest of a foothill, 
caught sight of the little city of Denver. To this pleasure 
was added the greater one to our immediate family of 
meeting, as we halted at the door of our little log cabin 
from which we had been absent so long, two additional 
members of our family — my brothers — who had, during 
our absence arrived from the States in company with a 



52 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

party of our former neighbors in Iowa. Happy indeed was 
that home-coming. 

That dear old cabin, so humble and unpretentious, so 
rude and uncouth, still remains to me the dearest spot on 
earth, and for those dear friend of those trying days I shall 
always bear the most sincere and lasting love. There are 
recollections as pleasant as they are sacred and eternal. 
There are words and faces and places that never lose their 
hold upon the heart. They may be words that we seldom 
hear amid the whirl and competition of life, faces that we 
may never see on earth again, places that we are seldom 
permitted to revisit; but they were once the scenes, the 
associates, the joy of our life; they had a controlling 
influence in training our aspirations and in shaping our 
destinies, and they can never be wholly forgotten. The 
flight of years cannot sully their innocence nor diminish 
their interest, and eternity will preserve them among the 
dearest reminiscences of earth. We may meet and love 
other faces, we may treasure other words, we may have 
other joys, we may mingle in other scenes and form other 
associations, but these old familiar faces and these dear old 
familiar scenes remain invested with a fadeless beauty, 
sacred in their exemption from oblivion and decay. 

My brothers, who had arrived during our absence in 
Mexico, had, at once upon their arrival, set to work in 
finishing our log house. Lumber had been procured and 
the entire ground space was now covered with a good, sub- 
stantial floor. The windows had been enlarged, the cracks 
well "chinked," and, taken all in all, the house was now 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 53 

SO fitted up as to render it light, warm and comfortable. 

The little town had grown to quite respectable propor- 
tions, being by this time a place of probably fifty or sixty 
cabins, and as lively a town for its size as ever stood upon 
the sod of Mother Earth, but still at that time opportunity 
for the making of money was lacking during the winter 
months, and by virtue of this fact, father and my brothers, 
soon after our return, decided to visit the mountains on a 
hunting expedition, hoping thereby to procure a sufficient 
amount of game to furnish us with meat during the winter. 

When they returned, in the course of two or three weeks, 
they did so with father lying sick in the vehicle, suffering 
with a severe attack of lung fever. The disease soon 
resolved itself into quick consumption, and early the 
following spring he passed away. Then it was that I felt 
that all the world held near and dear to me had been taken 
away, but I had no time for nursing my grief, as every 
moment of the day now brought a duty to perform. 

A few weeks after my father's death, my brothers left 
for the mountains on a prospecting tour, leaving mother 
and I at home alone, and the task of earning a sufficient 
amount to provide necessaries of life was indeed an arduous 
one. We still had a cow and our little home and by working 
almost day and night, sewing, mending, etc., we managed 
to struggle along. My brothers were unsuccessful in their 
search for gold and in order that they might be able to 
continue their work, every cent which we could accumulate, 
over and above enough to buy us flour, was given them. 

During the early summer the younger of these two 



54 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



brothers, while on a prospecting tour in the heart of the 
mountains, was overtaken by a band of hostile Indians and 
foully murdered. His body was brought to the door man- 
gled and mutilated and as I stood there and gazed upon 
that dear face my cup of bitterness seemed full to over- 
flowing, and Death would have been a welcome visitor. 
But it is not easjT^ to die at will, and not until the appointed 
time does the Master call. We all have our destinies to 
work out and our allotted life to live, and coward indeed is 
he who seeks to die for want of courage to battle with life. 
Many years of work and hardship, many a discouraging 
event and many a trial and trouble were yet to fall to my 
lot, and as if the presentment of such were within my 
heart, I resolved to close my lips to complaining and strive 
to do well the work outlined by God for me to accomplish. 
Denver was at this time, as I have already stated, a fair- 
sized, bustling, wide-awake western town, and were the 
truth told had the reputation — and well did it deserve the 
same — of being what in western parlance is termed "tough." 
Gambling and gaming, and the quarrels and fights always 
incident thereto provided constant excitement and "life." 
Desperate, lawless men thronged the street and scarcely a 
day passed but that the news would be whispered about from 
place to place that there was "another man for breakfast" 
which expression rightfully interpreted conveyed the intel- 
ligence that another human being had been shot down or 
knifed while in the midst of a quarrel over cards at the 
gaming table. Nor was the peaceably inclined person 
exempt from danger of being wounded by flying bullets 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 55 

from the gamblers' weapons. 

I remember distinctly an incident which will serve to 
illustrate the prevailing state of affairs at this time. Walk- 
ing along the main street of the town, I was about to pass 
one of the large tents in which gambling was being carried 
on when suddenly a quarrel arose within. In far less time 
than I employ in writing this brief sketch of the event, 
the sharp reports of the revolvers of the gamblers were 
ringing through the street in rapid succession. The fight 
was at its height in almost an instant, and, greatly startled, 
I turned to retrace my steps. As I did so a stray bullet 
pierced my dress and clothing and striking my right limb 
just above the knee, plowed a neat little furrow through 
the flesh at a depth of probably about an eighth of an inch 
below the surface, passing on through my clothing on the 
opposite side. The wound, as a matter of course, was but 
a slight one, and soon healed, but the sensation as I felt 
the leaden missle burn its way through my flesh was not of 
a very pleasant nature. Had I been six inches farther 
ahead I would have been badly wounded. 

Murderers, desperadoes and gamblers were almost daily 
being shot down. Carl Woods, a gambler and murderer, 
was pursued, overtaken and shot down almost at my very 
feet as I was one day in the act of crossing the Ferry street 
bridge. Among the poorer class great suffering existed 
and while women and children were almost starving for 
want of bread their husbands and fathers would be seated 
at the gaming table squandering their fortunes, all obli- 
vious of their needs. Gold dust alone was the only form of 



56 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

money in use and with wasteful extravagance and appar- 
ent utter disregard of its worth, would the precious 
article be lost or won, as the case might be, by the excited 
players. 

Thus were matters progressing in this wild western fron- 
tier town, when, as mid-summer approached, there one day 
arose an event which for a time attracted the attention of 
all and led their thoughts into another channel. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 57 



CHAPTER V. 

Mutilated Bodies Brought to Denver — Organization 
OF THE Denver Volunteers — Central City — The 
Methods Employed in Working the Mines — Left 
Alone While Mother and Brother Visit the Old 
Home in the States — A Murder. 

Reports had been current for some little time that the 
Indians were becoming hostile and troublesome. It was 
known that one or two men had been killed in the neigh- 
borhood, but the general opinion heretofore had been that 
possibly their death had been the result of personal quar- 
rels, and but little heed was paid to the circumstance, for 
it must be remembered that of so frequent occurrence was 
the shooting of men during these times that the fact as a 
rule aroused but slight interest or excitement. But con- 
clusive evidence of the hostilities of the red fiends was 
soon presented. 



58 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



Early one morning there arrived in Denver a lone horse- 
man as the bearer of the startling intelligence that a family 
of white settlers had been massacred a few miles from 
the town at their home on Cherry Creek. At once a posse 
was formed and started for the scene of the outrage. They 
soon returned with the mutilated bodies of a man, woman 
and child, and the sickening sight of those bodies as they 
lay in the main street of Denver, upon an overturned 
wagon box, will haunt me to my dying day. 

The man had been scalped and his body torn limb from 
limb, the straggling, bloody shreds of flesh dangling in 
ghastly fringe about the bones at the point where they had 
been severed from the body. The ears and nose had been 
chopped from the head, the tongue torn from its roots and 
the eyes gouged from their sockets. 

The body of the woman was mutilated in an equally 
devilish manner. The fair hair of the beautiful unfortunate 
was thickly matted with clotted crimson blood; sharpened 
sticks had been driven deep into her eyes; every feature 
was hacked, gashed and mutilated; into her snowy breast 
the fiends incarnate had plunged their deadly knife, and 
with the cruelty of minions of hell had torn forth her very 
heart. Nor did their fiendish nature find satisfaction even 
after the accomplishment of these brutal deeds, for her 
body bore further evidence of having been employed to 
satisfy the brutish, beastly passions of the living devils 
into whose power she had by fate been placed. The body 
of the child, a little boy of probably ten or twelve years of 
age, had been gashed from breast to lower limbs, and the 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 59 

intestines were fully exposed to view. 

Here indeed was evidence of a most terrible and bloody 
crime, and as the gathering throng looked upon the ghastly 
spectacle there arose in the breasts of those sturdy western 
pioneers a determination that vengeance should be meted 
out to the guilty parties, and ere the sun had set there had 
been organized the first company of Denver Volunteers, 
with Colonel Shivington, a presiding elder of the Meth- 
odist Church, as commander. Among the names of these 
men who thus organized for the purpose of protecting the 
homes and lives of the settlers was that of my brother. 

During the balance of the summer, fall and early winter 
several encounters occurred between the Indians and the 
Volunteers, but the red man was invariably bested and 
soon hostilities were in a measure suspended. 

Late in the summer brother decided to return to his 
prospecting and the decision was reached that mother and 
I should take up our abode at Central City, a place about 
twenty-five miles from Denver, farther up in the mountains, 
near which place his prospecting operations were being 
carried on. Here we remained during the fall and winter 
and until quite late the following spring. 

Brother's labors were not crowned with success and the 
long winter months were dreary and discouraging ones. 
Winter set in very cold and snow fell to an unusual depth. 
Our provisions finally dwindled to the limited variety of 
potatoes and hominy, and even the quantity of these be- 
came scant. On one of his tours in search of gold brother 
was overtaken by a blinding snow storm, and when finally 



60 THE CATTLE QUEEK OF MONTANA. 



brought home by a party who chanced to find him his con- 
dition was most critical, his hands, face and feet being 
badly frozen. About this time mother was rendered unfit 
for work by a severe attack of erysipelas, and as a conse- 
quence the care of the entire home fell upon my shoulders. 

With brother and mother both sick, our funds ex- 
hausted, our stock of provisions fast disappearing and no 
visible means of future support at hand, it was with a feel- 
ing that fortune had indeed smiled upon us that I received 
and accepted the offer of assuming the care of two mother- 
less children whose father agreed to pay for their keeping 
at the rate of $40 per month. This furnished us with funds 
with which to purchase food and clothing and in this way 
we managed to struggle through the winter. 

With the coming of spring my brother was stricken with 
a severe attack of "calico fever" — he had left a pretty 
sweetheart in the state of Iowa — and soon preparations 
were being made for a trip to the old home in the States. 
A consultation of the members of the family resulted in 
the verdict that brother and mother should return to Iowa, 
he to see his sweetheart and make her his bride and 
mother to sell the old farm and pass a few weeks with old 
friends and acquaintances. Funds would not permit of my 
going also, and so I was obliged to content myself with 
remaining at home and caring for the little charges I had 
taken. 

This I did and in addition, to my daily cares about the 
house found time to learn the trade of glove making by 
the practice of which I earned a considerable amount, 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 61 

receiving $10 per pair for embroidered buckskin gloves, 
and receiving orders for as many of the same as I could 
find time to make. Thus did I employ my time until their 
return, awaiting which event, kind reader, let us look about 
us at the surroundings of my cabin home and the town of 
Central City. 

The approach to the city is made through a deep gulch 
or canyon, hemmed in on either side by towering moun- 
tains. The roadway is as a winding stairway, circling th^ 
mountains at a gradual incline until the city is reached 
The mountains are well timbered with pine, with the 
exception of spots where huge walls of granite rock rise? 
majestic and towering for hundreds of feet, but to endeavo'/ 
to paint a pen picture of the grandeur and sublimity of 
these mountain scenes would be to undertake a hopeless 
task. 

The mines here at that time were but just being opened 
up and their working was after the primitive style. Shafts 
were sunken in the side of the mountain until "pay rock," 
or, more plainly speaking, mineral-bearing ore, was found, 
These shafts, or dry wells, were curbed with poles as they 
were being dug, to prevent the sides from caving, and were 
usually about five feet in diameter. The shaft having been 
finished to a sufficient depth, a windlass was provided at. 
the top or entrance, and the ore as it was loosened by the 
miners at the bottom of the shaft was loaded into buckets, 
and raised to the top of the ground, the power used being 
oxen attached to a large capstan, or in miners' parlance, ^ 
"whim." 



62 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

From the moutli of the mine the dirt and rock was taken 
to the "arastra." This machine was built as follows: 
Round about an upright post which was so arranged as to 
permit of its revolving, was laid a flooring of rocks to a 
distance of several feet, the outer edge of the pile being in 
the form of a circle which was bounded by heavy planks 
arranged in the form of a large tub. Across the top of 
the post were fastened two heavy beams, the ends of the 
same being equi-distant from the center of the post, thus 
forming four arms or ''sweeps." From the end of each 
*'sweep" was suspended, by rawhide thongs, large granite 
boulders, the lower surface of which would but just touch 
the upper surface of the rock floor, and thus as the post 
was revolved the heavy rocks would describe a circle in 
their course, crushing and grinding all rocks, and ore in 
the "arastra" to a fine sand or flour. 

At the time the ore was placed in the ''arastra" to be 
crushed a quantity of quicksilver would be scattered 
throughout the mass and at the same time a small stream 
of water would be turned on. As the process of grinding 
continued the gold would separate from the ore in small 
particles, and, being attracted by the quicksilver would 
form into chunks or balls varying in size from that of a 
hickory nut to that of a goose egg or larger. The ore and 
quartz having been ground to sufficient fineness the pow- 
dered product would be transferred to gold pans — small 
sheet-iron, flat-bottomed vessels resembling much the ordi- 
nary milk pan, with the exception of being larger — and 
with the aid of water the powdered rock and what little 




o3 



o 

-t-3 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 63 

earth there might chance to be mixed therewith, would be 
carefully washed and separated from the gold by hand. 

The gold and quicksilver was then enclosed in a small 
buckskin bag and subjected to a steady but heavy pressure 
which had the effect of forcing the greater part of the 
quicksilver through the buckskin, leaving the gold within. 
The contents of the bag would then be placed in an open 
pan and be subjected to an intense heat, the effects of 
which process would be to evaporate the quicksilver, 
leaving the pure gold dust intact. Thus did these hard- 
working miners secure their treasure. 

The quartz at this place was of the white crystal variety 
and was considered quite rich and productive, although, 
as a rule, white quartz is not good paying ore. 

This town, like Denver, was a lively one, and as was the 
case in all frontier towns at that time, was inhabited with 
many rough characters. Were it known that a person had 
money in any considerable quantity there would always be 
found those willing to resort to almost any means to obtain 
the same. Nor were the men alone always the only ones 
implicated in these robberies and murders. 

As handsome a woman as I ever knew was one of the 
principals in a murder and robbery while I was a resident 
/of this place, and while I was not an actual eye witness to 
the crime, still I was at the time within but short distance 
•of the spot where it was committed. It happened one 
evening as I was upon the mountain side in company with 
the little children over whom I had assumed the position 
of foster-mother. 



64 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Passing along the roadway which ran along and around 
the side of the mountain we met a man and woman who 
appeared to be in earnest conversation. Their actions and 
appearance led me to the opinion that they were sweet- 
hearts who had but just met after a long separation, and 
particularly loving and kind appeared the gentler of the 
pair. They passed on up the mountain and I and my little 
charges continued on our way. A short distance farther 
on we met a man making his way rapidly along in the 
direction of the pair we had just passed. But a brief period 
elapsed ere the sharp, ringing report of a discharged fire- 
arm rang through the air, and instinctively realizing that a 
tragedy had been enacted, I turned and hastily retraced my 
steps. Rounding a point of rock but a few hundred feet 
from where I stood at the time I heard the shot, I came 
upon the bleeding body of the man who had but a short 
time previous passed me in company with the woman. 
The others had disappeared. I lifted his head in my 
arms, but the first glance at his ghastly face told me that 
his spirit had taken flight to the distant, far away shore, 
and that life was extinct. 

I returned to the little city with all possible haste and 
made known the particulars of the terrible event, and in a 
short time men were in search of the guilty pair. They 
were soon captured, and upon being brought to town con- 
fessed their crime and revealed the motive of the same as 
well as the manner in which they had hoped to accom- 
plish their purpose. 

As the man was known to have a considerable amount 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 65 

of money about his person, the beautiful woman had with 
fond words and tender caresses enticed him to the lonely 
mountain road, and there, while all unmindful of his dan- 
ger, the companion of her guilt had with brutal hand and 
fiendish heart, under the cover of the pretended right of 
an outraged husband to summarily deal out punishment to 
the seducer of his wife, foully murdered him. The next 
day witnessed the execution of the guilty pair, both being 
given a trial, pronounced guilty and hung by the neck 
until they were dead. Such was life in Central City, Col., 
at that time. 



66 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A Tkip TO Pike's Peak — The "Garden of the Gods" — 
Attacked by Indians — Wounded — Refuge in a 
Cave — An Indian Scaee in Denvee — Staet for the 
States. 

As spring lengthened into summer, a desire to return to 
the old home at Denver grew upon me, and finally mak- 
ing arrangements for the care of the little motherless 
children at the home of a good, kind family, I bade adieu 
to Central City and returned to the little cabin beneath 
the lone tree, there to await the return of my mother 
and brother. 

But a few weeks passed from the time I arrived at Den- 
ver, ere they returned accompanied by my brother's wife, 
whom he had married during his absence, and one of my 
brothers who had been left at school at the time of our 
, departure from Iowa. 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 67 



A new life now opened for me. Reared amidst the envi- 
ronments of a city, possessed of a classical education and 
brightly enameled with the polish of eastern society as 
she was, my brother's chosen companion was to me more a 
person of whom I stood in awe than one with whom I 
could associate. From her dizzy height of refinement and 
culture she looked down upon me almost as would the 
towering, picturesque mountain with stately forests, noble 
piles of granite and beautiful, snow-tipped crest, gaze 
upon the barren plain of desert land at its feet, and under 
the chilling influence of her haughty words and acts I soon 
became not only very discouraged, but at the same time 
discontented. 

I never liked these cold, precise, perfect people, who in 
order not to speak wrong never speak at all, and in order 
not to do wrong never do anything, and from that date up 
to the present time I cannot say that I have ever had any 
particular fancy for that species of the human race known 
as sisters-in-law. There may be some who are loveable 
and desirable possessions, but my experience has been 
that the sections of the country where I have made my 
home furnish at best but poor food for them and they do 
not appear to thrive well. I am free to admit that I may 
harbor a fancy upon this subject which renders me unfit 
to pose as authority, but as my motto has alway been to 
"tell the truth, even though the heavens fall," I speak thus 
plainly, and even as I do so seek the shelter of courage 
of conviction and await the downpour of wrath which is 
sure to follow. 



68 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



As I liave just said, I was becoming discouraged and 
discontented, and therefore the proposition of my brother, 
who had just come from the States, that a pleasure and 
sight-seeing trip to Pike's Peak be taken, met with great 
favor on my part, and mother's consent having been ob- 
tained, we set forth to the mighty mound, well provided 
with provisions, camping utensils, etc. 

This noted mountain is distant from Denver in the 
neighborhood of one hundred miles. Our journey to the 
mountain was marked by no particular mishaps, and upon 
arriving at the foot of the same we found a small pleasure 
party there camped, preparing for the ascent. 

Starting early in the morning and leaving our teams at 
the foot, we toiled onward and upward through the forest, 
past the yawning chasms, over the bowlders, clilBPs and 
rocks, and finally at nightfall had reached the summit. 
Here we camped for the night, amid the clouds. Far, far 
below us floated the fleecy, flaky wanderers, and ere the 
descent was entered upon the following morning a thun- 
der storm had gathered and burst below us, and as we 
gazed far down the incline to the canyons below, the 
lightning's vivid flash was seen as the rebounding echoes 
of the mighty thunder rolled upward along the slope to 

our ears. 

Leaving the summit we with dilfficulty descended the 
slope. I say with difficulty, not as a figure of speech, but 
as the assertion of a fact. Far more difficult is the descent 
of a steep incline than the ascent. The limbs of the 
pedestrian tire much more quickly, and extreme caution 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 69 

must be exercised or a fall is sure to follow. 

Varying from our former course we passed partially 
around the mountain and entered a basin-like opening 
known as the "Garden of the Gods." Here were we met 
by a scene which surpasses all description. 

Central in this natural park, towered upward to a height 
of several hundred feet, three mighty pyramidal cliffs, 
resembling in outline and general features the ruins of 
some ancient temple, each distinct in color from that of 
its neighbor — one being of a beautiful mottled granite, 
another of snowy white flint, and the third of a handsome 
red stone similar in character. Upon their face or surface, 
as a result of the action of t'he winds, they bore figures 
almost lifelike in their resemblance of human beings, and 
far up their sides various figures, windows and spires, as 
perfect in their outlines as they would have been had 
they been fashioned by the chisel of some noted sculptor, 
were discernable. 

Scattered here and there about the base of this mighty 
temple were smaller rocks in representation of a throng of 
worshipers, and he who would pause to ponder would 
find food for reflection upon the ages gone by and the 
changes yet to be wrought by Nature's hand. 

As one gazed upoii those motionless figures, shaped in 
all their graceful curves and wondrous grandeur, the 
mighty faces seemed so sad, so earnest, so longing and so 
patient. They were stone, but yet they seemed almost as 
living beings. If ever images of stone thought, they were 
thinking. They were looking toward the verge of the 



70 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

landscape, but looking at nothing — nothing but distance 
and vacancy. They were looking over and beyond every- 
thing of the present, and far into the past. They were 
thinking of the wars of departed ages — of the empires they 
had seen created and destroyed — of the nations whose birth 
thsy had witnessed, whose progress they had watched, and 
whose annihilation they had noted — of the joy and sorrow, 
the life and death, the grandeur and decay of many thousand 
slow revolving years. 

All who know the pathos there is in memories of days 
that are accomplished and faces that have vanished, will 
have some appreciation of the pathos that dwelt in those 
grave eyes that looked so steadfastly back upon the things 
they knew before History was born — things that were and 
forms that moved in a vague era and have passed one by 
one away and left the stony dreamer solitary in the midst 
of a strange new age. 

There was that in the overshadowing majesty of those 
eternal figures of stone, with tlieir accusing memory of the 
deeds of all ages, that revealed to one something of what he 
shall feel when he stands at last in the awful presence of 
Almighty God. 

There were immense rocks — bowlders — so nicely poised 
on a mere point that a little force would set them in motion 
while the strength of many hands could not bring them to 
rest, and here stretched far on either hand this vast Nature, 
daunting, bewildering and enchanting. Even though in 
the midst of this enchanting spot antiquity was present in 
person, still upon the mountain sides which bound this 



A eTOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENOE IN THE WEST. 71 

sacred abode of Nature, every wrinkle of inconceivable 
antiquity was cunningly hidden under roses and violets 
and luxuriant grasses. 

Every inch of the mountains was scarred by unimagin- 
able convulsions, yet all, under the cover of Nature's 
garb, seemed only as the yielding velvet of the finest 
texture. 

Reluctantly turning from this beautiful spot, quite late 
in the afternoon we started on for the point where our 
teams and wagons had been abandoned the previous morn- 
ing. As we neared them we could see in the distance, upon 
the plains, numerous horsemen riding hither and thither 
and perceived at once that an Indian battle was in progress. 
With caution we moved on until the teams were reached, 
and, hastily harnessing the same, attached them to the 
wagons and retreated to the mountains, camping some 
distance up the slope in a small natural basin or park and 
near a small mountain stream. 

Great care had been exercised in making this journey, 
that a route should be traveled which would enable us to 
keep at all times from the sight of the Indians, and as we 
rested that night we felt secure and content in the belief 
that our presence in the neighborhood of our red enemies 
was unknown to them. 

After camping for the night my brother was detailed as 
a scout to prospect the adjoining vicinity and ascertain if 
possible whether or not Indians were in our immediate 
locality and also, by mounting the highest point of land 
near by, gain knowledge of the movements of the band 



72 tHE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

below. He started forth and shortly after dark returned 
with the report that as near as he was able to ascertain or 
judge by the actions of the Indians, all was well and that 
our movements of the afternoon had been unnoticed. 

While on this scouting trip my brother by chance dis- 
covered, but a short distance from our camp, the entrance 
to a subterranean cavern, and fortunate indeed did this . 
discovery prove. 

All went well with the little party during the evening 
and night, with the exception of the necessity of partaking 
of a cold lunch for our evening meal, as it was not deemed 
advisable to build a fire for fear it might lead to our 
presence being discovered by the Indians. 

But we were deceived in the belief that we had been 
unseen, for as morning dawned and almost simultaneous with 
the appearance of the first faint, grey streaks of light in 
the eastern sky, there sounded upon every side and went 
ringing, vibrating and echoing through the mountain 
canyons and about the towering cliffs the wild, weird and 
blood-curdling war cry of a mighty host of fiendish Indian 
warriors. 

At the first cry the camp was in an uproar. Snatching 
up a pair of old overalls, brother handed them to me with 
the stern command, "Crawl in, and be quick about it, too." 
Scarcely waiting for me to obey the command — for the 
feat of stowing away a medium-sized female and several 
yards of skirts in the interior of a pair of overalls is one 
which cannot be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye 
— he firmly grasped my hand and running with all possible 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 78 

speed we sought to escape. But a short distance had been 
covered ere a stray bullet found lodging place in one of my 
limbs, striking me fairly upon the knee-cap of my right 
knee. Our movements were by this time discovered and 
with the fury of demons a small squad, which separated 
from the main body of the attacking force, swept down 
upon us. 

As I fell by the shot by which I was wounded, my brother 
stooped and raised me in his arms and continued the 
flight, directing his steps toward the mouth or entrance of 
the cave he had the night before discovered. Even in less 
time than I have been writing, this spot had been reached 
and, w^ith an admonition to be brave, he dropped me to the 
depths below, he himself following, after first pausing an 
instant on the brink and, turning so as to face his pursuers, 
wildly waving his arms about his head, pointing his finger 
to the heavens above and then, leaping high in the air, 
apparently plunged into the bowels of the earth. 

The Indians, without exception, are prone to supersti- 
tious beliefs, and our sudden disappearance from the sur- 
face of the earth in this, to them, startling manner, led 
them to believe that we were in collusion with the spirits, 
and none dare approach the spot where we had so mys- 
teriously disappeared. 

The floor of the cave into which we had entered in this 
abrupt and unceremonious manner was at a depth of about 
five feet below the surface at the point of our entrance and 
this distance we both fell, but, although somewhat bruised 
and jarred by the. fall, neither of us were badly injured 



74 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

My knee was bleeding badly and paining me most terribly. 
By the uncertain light — as soon as we were satisfied that 
we were not pursued — brother bound the wound with 
strips torn from my dress, while the overalls I had so 
hastily donned were wrapped about his hand and arm 
which had been badly bruised and lacerated by the fall into 
the cave. 

The reader, unless he chances to be a person familiar 
with the peculiarities of the savages, has no doubt ere this 
sought for an explanation of the necessity for my assum- 
ing in a measure the garb of a male during this escapade, 
and to such inquiring minds I will at this time say that it 
was solely for the purpose of deceiving our pursuers in the 
matter of my sex and to cover my identity as a female, for 
an Indian warrior will face any and all dangers, rush 
blindly and with the most unflinching nerve into the most 
deadly peril to effect the capture of a white woman, and had 
they known that the "White Lilly," as I was called, was so 
nearly within their grasp, nothing would have served to 
daunt them in their efforts to take me captive. 

Throughout the long, weary day we remained hidden in 
this underground retreat, momentarily expecting an attack 
and not until night had fallen did brother venture to ap- 
p^oacli the entrance. He then with extreme caution crept 
forth and finding all quiet about, gathered pine knots for a 
fire and light, and with his knife cut a sufficient number 
of pine boughs to form for me a comfortable bed. Bring- 
ing these to the entrance of the cave, a small quantity at a 
time, he threw them to the floor below, and when a 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 75 



sufficient amount had been obtained, followed himself. 

A blazing fire — by the light of which he arranged for 
me a bed — was soon provided, and as the flames shot up 
from that little pile of pine knots, there was disclosed to 
our view as grand and brilliant a sight as ever human eye 
rested upon. Broadening, widening and stretching far 
back into the dim distance were walls of glittering, spark- 
ling crystals of fantastic shapes and forms. Hanging from 
the walls above were thousands upon thousands of irregu- 
lar and peculiarly shaped prisms, and as the flickering 
light from the fire played in and about the nooks and 
niches, the effect was as if the walls and roof had been 
studded with brilliant diamonds, rubies and sapphires. 

For an instant our dangers and painful wounds were 
forgotten and we gazed with admiration upon the scene 
about us, but our aching limbs soon brought us to a real- 
ization of our situation, and after arranging as best he 
could for my comfort, my brother crept forth into the dark- 
ness to search for help and learn the fate of those from 
whom we had parted. 

Alone in that cave, my feelings may far better be imag- 
ined than described. My every move, and even the crack- 
ling of the fire, as it devoured the pitchy pine knots, 
would stir up weird and uncanny echoes which would go 
hurrying and scurrying from floor to ceiling, from wall to 
wall, and finally die away in the dark depths of the dis- 
tance, and my feverish imagination converted the sparkle 
and glimmer of the crystal prisms into the angry glare of 
the glistening eyes of a myriad of wild beasts. Not a 



76 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

sound could be heard from the earth above and the very 
presence of death seemed to pervade the atmosphere. 

Tired and suflPering, with strained nerves and disconsolate 
heart I awaited the return of my dear brother, but before 
the transpiring of that event I had fallen into a troubled 
sleep from which I was awakened only by the sound of 
his voice and the touch of his hand upon my feverish face. 
With him were several miners who kindly volunteered to 
give me shelter and food at their camp until such time as 
I should regain sufficient strength to return to my home. 

Of the company of which we were members at the time 
of the attack by the Indians, three men and one woman 
were killed a.nd scalped and their bodies terribly mutilated. 

The Indians were now with alarming frequency com- 
mitting depredations of more or less seriousness, and all 
the inhabitants of Denver and vicinity stood in constant 
fear of the savage fiends. The fact of the killing of the 
members of our party was of course known by the time I 
returned home and I was, upon my arrival, visited by^ 
countless numbers of friends and acquaintances and plied 
with questions of every sort relative to the adventure. 

The excitement over the occurrence was just at its 
Intensity and the subject was upon the lips of nearly every 
person in the little town, when one evening, about 10 
o'clock, in some manner an alarm was given that the 
Indians were about to attack the town. 

The report was immediately accepted as true and the 
wildest excitement prevailed. The women and children 
were hurried to a building centrally located, which was 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 77 

^ ■■--■.... 

selected as the one offering the best protection from the 
assaults of the expected foe, the male portion of the 
inhabitants sought their firearms or some secluded hiding 
place — about an equal number of each — and for the 
moment confusion reigned supreme. 

I was taken from my sick bed and scantily clothed and 
covered, carried to the general rendezvous and deposited 
upon the floor in one corner, amid the throng of crying 
women and squalling babes. Amid this confusion, and 
suffering almost unbearable torture from my wounded 
limb, I was allowed or rather forced to remain until about 
3 o'clock the following morning, when it was learned that 
the alarm was a false one which had been started by some 
weak-hearted "pilgrim" who' chanced to hear an uproar 
from a party of drunken Mexicans who were camped on 
the outskirts of the town. 

By the time I was returned to my bed at home the strain 
upon my weakened nerves had proven too great a one to 
be withstood and I was wildly raving as the result of a 
severe attack of brain fever. 

For weeks and months I lay in this condition battling 
with death, and my life hanging, as it were, suspended by 
a mere thread. At last there came a change for the better, 
and late in the winter I rallied from my sickness and with 
early spring was sufficiently recovered to be up and around 
and assume, in a limited measure, my duties about the 
house. 

Then it was that my mother offered the suggestion that 
I return to the States for a few months of rest and recrea- 



78 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 

tion, and a seeming opportunity soon presented itself to 
carry this suggestion into effect. 

The settlement had by this time grown to considerable 
size and the demand for teams and wagons for freighting 
purposes was quite large. Brother was offered good wages 
to engage in the business of freighting merchandise across 
the plains, and accepted the offer, and with him on his 
first trip was I to return to my old childhood home. 

With a heart beating with joy and happiness and a mind 
filled with fond expectancy of anticipated pleasures I 
completed all necessary arrangements and we were ready 
for the start in good season to join the large company of 
freighters who started on the long journey early in the 
spring. Fond, loving farewells were spoken, tender kisses 
exchanged and, followed by the God speed of family and 
friends, we set forth upon the journey — a journey which 
proved pregnant with peril and suffering. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 79 



CHAPTER VII. 

Start for the States — Captured by Indians — My 
Companion Prisoners — A Friend and A Foe — White 
Child Buried Alive — The Indian Village — Captive 
Life Begins. 

We had traveled eastward several hundred miles across 
the vast expanse which lay before us and our point of des- 
tination, when late one afternoon we separated from the 
main company, intending to visit the family of a settler 
who was known to be living on the banks of a small stream 
which ran a few miles to the right of the trail, after which 
we expected to again join the train. 

For several days past no signs of Indians had been seen 
and thinking that as none of the savages had been noticed 
it followed as a matter of course that none were about, the 
probability of an attack never entered our mind. 

Herein were we misled, for experience has taught me 
that as long as Indians are to be seen about the hills and 



80 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

plains, there exists but little danger, but let them disappear 
from sight for the period of a day or two or even a week, 
and it may be taken for granted that an attack is being 
planned. 

Just at dusk we neared the banks of the little stream 
and, proceeding leisurely along, all unmindful of impend- 
ing danger, were soon traveling through the thick timber 
which skirted the stream on either side backward from the 
water's edge for a distance of perhaps half a mile. 

Suddenly, as rise the myriads of grasshoppers from the 
grass around and about the feet of the galloping steed, 
there sprang from their hiding places in the brush about 
us a band of Indian warriors, and ere we could scarcely 
raise a hand we were fully surrounded and completely 
within their power. 

With a courage born of desperation my brother endeav- 
ored to break through the circle of foes by severely lashing 
the frightened team, but the mules were quickly grabbed 
by the bridles which they wore and even in less time than 
is required to relate the incident brother had been overpow- 
ered and with a savage blow knocked from his seat in the 
wagon to the ground beneath, thus leaving me at the mercy 
of the detestable, ugly and repulsive red men. Dragging 
me from the wagon, which they quickly ransacked and 
plundered, they blindfolded my eyes and placed me upon a 
pony before a warrior, and soon we were on the move, 
never halting until the morning of the following day, 
except for a few moments at a time for the purpose of 
allowing the ponies, which the members of the band rode, 



A STOKY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 81 



to drink from an occasional stream across which our route lay. 

At last a halt was called and upon the stop being made 
the bandage was removed from my eyes, although my hands 
were left tied, and as I was lifted from the horse my feet 
were bound in a like manner. How far we had traveled or 
in what direction I knew not. My first thought was of my 
brother, but though I scanned closely every face, he was 
nowhere to be seen, and at once I came to the conclusion 
that the blow which had knocked him from the wagon had 
been a fatal one. 

Near me, with hands and feet securely bound, lay a 
white woman and six children, ranging in age from about 
twelve years downward to a nursing infant — the family of 
the settler whom we were on our way to visit when cap- 
tured. An attempt on my part to speak to my companion 
in misery was checked by my body guard placing his dirty, 
filthy black hand over my mouth, and at the same time 
raising his battle-ax threateningly above my head. 

Soon we were given water and food and in the course of 
an hour or so we again proceeded on our journey. As had 
been the case during the night, I was placed upon a horse 
before a warrior, but the white woman of whom I have 
spoken was forced to walk by the side of a pony and carry 
her babe, while the children were also compelled to walk. 

I soon discovered the reason for the favoritism thus 
shown me, for upon close study of the face of the warrior 
with whom I was riding I remembered the features as 
those of the chief who had admired my courage in slapping 
the face of his son at the time of his visit to our camp on 



82 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

our first trip across the plains several years before. He 
had recognized me and decided that I should become his 
possession. 

But with this discovery arose a new and greater fear 
within my heart, for well did I know that should I fall into 
the hands of the son, hopeless indeed would be my condi- 
dion. Even as these thoughts were passing through my 
mind the person of whom I was in such dread rode to the 
side of the pony upon which we were riding and engaged 
in conversation with his parent, and well did my heart tell 
me of what they were talking, and fully did I realize the 
intent and purpose of that red brute as he turned toward 
me with eyes flashing with hatred and a devilish smile 
upon his ugly face, and I knew that were I to be surrendered 
to his power I should suffer a fate worse than death and that 
while life remained in my body I should undergo the 
tortures of a living hell. But the chief seemed determined 
retain me and I still kept my seat with him. 

On across the hot, dry, sandy plains we traveled and by 
night the woman and children who had been forced to walk, 
without rest the entire day were footsore, faint and weary 
almost unto death. Our camp for the night was near a 
small stream where we found a camp of women and children 
awaiting us, and hardly had we halted ere the matter of 
the possession of the prisoners was a disputed subject. 

The white woman was led to the tepee of a sturdy 
warrior and soon her muffled cries and the sounds of a 
desperate struggle within the rude habitation told of the 
terrible crime that was being therein enacted. But force 




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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 88 

and might finally triumphed and as stillness again settled 
upon the scene, upon the pages of the Great Hereafter there 
was written the record of one more sin, one more gentle 
one whose life had been ruined to content the brutal lust 
of a depraved nature. 

As I heard those cries and was myself surrounded by a 
band of those depraved creatures who were endeavoring to 
arrive at an agreement as to who should become possessed 
of my body, there arose within my heart a full realization 
of the danger and peril in which I stood, and with tears of 
fear and misery coursing down my cheeks I lifted my bound 
hands to God in prayer that I might be spared the fate of 
my unfortunate companion. 

Struggling with difficulty to my knees I implored the old 
chief to save me, and, although he understood not the 
words I spoke, still my acts and looks told plainly of my 
meaning and, touched by my pleading, he beckoned the 
band from my side and leading them to where his 
ponies were grazing, selected the finest of the lot and 
delivered it to them as the price of my purchase. This, for 
the time being placed me more at ease, for as soon as the 
matter had thus been decided my feet were unbound, and 
I was led to the chief's tepee, where I was delivered into 
the care of his daughter, by whose side I passed the night. 

Early the next morning we broke camp and again moved 
on. The poor white woman was scarcely able to walk and 
the oldest girl, a child of about ten years of age, upon 
being led from the tent where she had been forced to remain 
during the night as a companion of one of the depraved 



84 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

brutes, fainted from weakness and abuse. The wretch 
whose fiendish acts had brought about this condition, 
angered by her weakness, stood for a moment over her 
prostrate form and then with a cry of devilish rage buried 
deep into her skull the blade of his battle-ax. A slight 
quiver of the childish body and the little sufferer was at 
rest. • 

I was again allowed to ride, but after traveling but a 
short distance the taunts of the remainder of the band who 
continuously made light of the chief's friendship for me, 
became unbearable to the old warrior and I was lowered to 
the ground and the corner of his blanket being placed in 
my hand, commanded to walk by the side of the pony. 

By this time one of the younger children of the poor 
white woman had sickened and, being unabled to walk, 
was being carried by the fond mother, in addition to the 
burden of the nursing babe. As she would falter and 
faint from over-exertion, the wretches would ride by her 
side and with blows and prods from their spears urge her 
on. 

But as the heat from the burning sun gradually grew 
more intense and prostrating in its effect, as mile after 
mile she wearily dragged along, there finally came a time 
when for her to proceed further under her burden was an 
impossibility, and with a low moan of anguish she sank by 
the side of the trail. Then was the brutal, depraved and 
hellish nature of those red brutes fully manifested. 

Hastily dismounting they gathered about her, and after a 
short consultation, commenced the work of digging a small 




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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 85 

hole in the sand, their spear heads being employed in the 
capacity of spades or shovels. The excavation having been 
completed, the sick child was torn roughly from its mother's 
arms and placed within the same and covered with sand, 
with the exception of its poor little unprotected head, which 
was left protruding from the living grave, fully exposed to 
the rays of the gleaming sun above, and there left to die. 

About the neck of the nursing babe was then placed a 
rawhide thong, several feet in length, the opposite end of 
which was securely tied to the body of a warrior mounted 
upon a horse. The child was placed in the mother's arms, 
and thus was she given the alternative of walking at a rate 
of speed equal to that maintained by the horse and horse- 
man or, failing to do this, witness the death of her infant 
by being dragged along the ground by the thong about 
its neck. 

What, judge you, were the innermost feelings of that 
fond mother as she heard the cries of that dying child whom 
she was forced to leave thus upon those broad sandy plains 
to starve and die. Oh, God, could I have been given 
strength and power to stand between those minions of hell 
and the weak, helpless beings upon whom they were 
practicing such torture, willingly would I have sacrificed 
life itself. 

At the close of the second day's travel we neared the 
foothills of a mountain range, and, ere night had set in, 
had penetrated these to a huge, deep canyon within which, 
in the midst of a large valley surrounding by towering 
bluffs and approachable only by way of the narrow gorge 



86 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

through which we passed, was the village of the tribe. 

A raighty host of ugly squaws, dirty children and snarl- 
ing curs welcomed the party and soon we were surrounded 
and made the central figures of the disgusting crowd. Their 
gutteral jargon seemed like the chatter of demons, and 
in the fast gathering gloom their dark and half naked 
bodies suggested the idea of wild and savage beasts. 

The young braves who were not as yet of sufficient age 
to join in the war parties amused themselves with the cap- 
tive children, torturing the poor little weary and footsore 
infants in a most cruel and heartless manner. The poor 
white woman, as the party halted, sank to the ground 
completely exhausted, her feet bleeding and blistered from 
the hot sun and rocks, her face swollen and eyes bloodshot 
from weeping and her arms almost completely paralyzed 
from the labor of carrying her infant during the long 
journey. About her gathered a group of squaws who seemed 
to delight in subjecting her to every conceivable form of 
torture. The poor little babe, with its neck chafed by the 
rawhide thong which had encircled it during the latter half 
of the day was crying and sobbing bitterly from pain and 
hunger. This appeared to anger the inhuman wretches, 
and, soon a large ugly squaw seized the child by the feet, 
pulled it violently from its mother's arms, and turning to a 
tree which stood near by, with one savage blow beat its 
brains out upon the sturdy pine. 

The mother leaped to her feet and with a cry of anguish 
sprang torward her child, her arms outstretched and her 
swollen, bloodshot eyes reflecting the misery within her 




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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 87 



heart, but rough hands seized her on every side and ere she 
could scarcely move she was forced to the ground. With- 
out a struggle she suffered herself to be thus borne down, 
her face drawn and haggard, her eyes dry and tearless, and 
from that time on until Death's summons came — some 
weeks later — she appeared to be as one in a troubled 
dream and all oblivious of surroundings or occurring events. 

As, during the night before, I was placed in charge of 
the chief's daughter, and with her shared a bed of skins 
and robes in the old warrior's tepee, but throughout the 
long, weary night my eyes were sleepless and my mind 
occupied with thoughts of the inhuman cruelty I had been 
forced to witness and wondering as to the fate I might 
myself expect to meet. But amid all this there came to me 
a realization of the kindness of Him who directs all things 
aright, in that I had been spared the agony of an experience 
such as that of my companion in captivity, and with a heart 
overflowing with thankfulness I raised my hands to the 
Almighty Father in thanksgiving that I had thus far been 
spared. 

While the village yet lay within the shadow of the 
mountains before the rising sun the following morning, 
another war party arrived at the settlement. They too 
had been successful in the matter of captures and brought 
with them as prizes of war a y oung Mexican and an Indian 
warrior of another tribe, bot h of whom were quite badly 
wounded. Th e customary rejoicing over captured prison- 
ers followed, but soon, after the morning meal had been 
partaken of, the camp assumed a more than usual qui etness 



88 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

and throughout the day and the following night all were 
employed in the general occupation — that of sleeping and 
resting from the travel of the previous days 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 89 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Indian Scalp Dance — A Scalp — Daily Life of the 
Indians — A Few Matches Used to Great Advant- 
age — I AM Pronounced "A Bad Spirit", and with 
THE Other Prisoners am Doomed to Death. 

The second morning, however, ushered in a scene of 
preparation of unusual proportion, and after the comple- 
tion of the morning meal the prisoners were all gathered 
to the center of the camp and seated a»t the foot of a tall 
pole from which dangled a half-dozen or more newly-taken 
scalps. The hideously painted and gaily bedecked Indian 
warriors tli^iii foAied in a circle about us and soon the 
blood-curdling scalp dance was in progress, a description 
of which I shall at this time endeavor to give. 

First, joining hands about this tall pole and the prison- 
ers, the warriors circled around and about, uttering the 
weird, wild and devilish war whoop or battle cry of their 
tribe. Soon they would loosen their grasp upon each 



90 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

others hands and enter upon a series of maneuvers 
utterly impossible to describe. 

Jumping, crouching, advancing, retreating, brandishing 
their battle axes high in the air with one hand, and with 
the other poising their spears above our heads they would 
spring upon us as we crouched in the midst of that circle 
of demons momentarily expecting a blow from their brutal 
arm. Retreating with a hideous smile upon their faces, 
they would again pause but a moment ere they once 
more rushed upon us, the while gleefully fondling the 
scalps of those they had captured and which were sus- 
pended from belts fastened about their bodies. 

These scalps are considered by an Indian warrior the 
most valuable of all possessions and are looked upon by 
them as the only evidence of a warrior's bravery. 

While the nature of a scalp is probably understood by 
nearly all who may peruse these pages, still for the infor- 
mation of such as are not familiar with the character of the 
same, I will say that it is the skin and a small tuft of hair 
cut from the top of a person's head. In taking a scalp the 
Indian grasps j&rmly a handful of hair on the extreme 
top of the head, at the same time with the other hand 
cutting the skin of the scalp in a circle about the hand and 
beneath the hair which he holds, removing the skin with 
the hair attached, from a spot about the size of the half of 
a person's hand. The bones of the skull are allowed to 
remain uninjured and the scalp consists of little more than 
the mere skin and clinging hair. After being removed 
the scalp is allowed to dry and is then treasured by the 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 91 

warrior whose property it is as a token of his bravery and 
ferocity. Following a battle and the capture of prisoners 
this dance is invariably indulged in as a manifestation of 
rejoicing over the success of the war party. 

For several hours we were compelled to remain amid this 
circle and witness the rejoicing of our captors, but finally 
they became weary and exhausted, the dance was brought 
to a close and we were allowed to return to the tepees 
from which we had been called to witness this frolic of 
the brutes. 

While scarcely a day passed but that some one of the 
prisoners would be subjected to some manner of torture, 
still taken as a whole, there soon settled about the camp a 
state or condition of affairs typical of the ordinary hum- 
drum, lazy life of the Indians. 

The women were of course at all times busily engaged 
in some occupation or another, for to them falls the lot of 
a veritable slave. By their hands are prepared all eatables, 
by them is gathered all food, they alone bring from the 
hunting grounds where slaughtered all game, care for the 
horses, make the clothing, make and pitch the tepees, and 
in fact do each and every particular labor and duty about 
the camp, for the Indian brave who will so much as raise 
his hand to assist in any duty which partakes in the 
slightest degree of manual labor is looked upon by his 
associates as a disgrace to the tribe of which he is a 
member. 

An Indian woman is the most abject slave in existence, 
and, as if their customary degredation influenced their 



92 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

inborn instincts, they are also the most cruel, brutal and 
heartless of their tribe in the treatment of captives. 

The food of the Indians during my stay among them 
consisted chiefly of the meats of the buffalo, antelope, etc, 
dried berries, dried roots and like articles. All was 
prepared in a filthy, slovenly manner, and only after 
experiencing the pangs of extreme hunger could I force 
myself to partake of the same, but strange as it may seem, 
so accustomed had I become to this food during my 
stay with them — a period of about six months — that for 
some little time after my rescue the food prepared by the 
whites was almost equally as repulsive. 

But to return to the Indian camp — although not a 
pleasant duty on my part — I will resume the story of my 
captive life. 

For some little time after my capture and our arrival 
at the village the influence of the chief's avowed and 
manifest friendship appeared to spread around and about 
me a protection from the grosser insults and outrages so 
frequently and regularly heaped upon the other captives 
Even the chief's son, whom I have heretofore mentioned 
as one of whom I stood in such fearful dread, appeared to 
lack courage to endeavor to carry out his cherished 
designs, and in consequence of this existing state of affairs 
I had begun to hope that these influences might be 
maintained until such time as Fate should provide for my 
rescue — for that I should be rescued I never for a moment 
doubted, although I must admit that at times such hope 
almost died within me. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 93 

Pondering over these events continually I finally arrived 
at the determination that rather than submit to the torture 
and death-preferable experience of my companion in 
misery — the white woman — I would end my life by means 
of the small stock of matches which I found I had safely 
hidden in my skirt — for I was aware of the poisonous 
nature of the composition which formed the "heads" of 
these useful little articles. 

Thus, looking upon them as a possible means of escape 
from a torture far worse than death itself, I removed them 
from the pocket of my skirt, and with extreme caution 
secreted them in the hem of the garment, and, as time 
wore on more firm became my determination to seek their 
aid in case occasion should arise. 

Some two or three weeks following the scalp dance a war 
party was formed, and, headed by the chief of whose family 
I was a member, went forth to battle the opposing forces 
of an adjoining tribe. The day upon which the start was 
made was a dark and dreary one and one intended to arouse 
within even the happy heart the most melancholy thoughts. 

Surrounded as I was, separated from all I held near and 
dear, among savage, brutal foes, I gave way to the depres- 
sion which settled over me and throughout the entire day 
I was unable to check the torrent of tears or hush the 
moans of . bitter anguish which would in spite of every 
effort on my part arise from my down-cast and sorrowing 
heart. 

As the day wore on and night approached the chief's son 
apioeared more frequently than usual in the neighbor- 



94 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

hood of our tepee, and it was indeed with a sinking heart 
and a feeling of deadly fear that I closely watched his 
movements and thought of the peril which I knew was 
hovering about me. Evening came at last, and as if by 
preconcerted arrangement, the sweetheart of the chief's 
daughter appeared upon the scene and soon they wandered 
away, leaving me alone at the tepee, for the chief's squaw 
had left that morning for some place unknown to me and 
had not as yet returned to camp. 

Almost simultaneously with the departure of the chief's 
daughter and her sweetheart the dark form of my persecu- 
tor appeared at the entrance to the tepee, paused a 
moment in the narrow opening and then silently crept into 
the darkness within. 

My dread and fear of that depraved brute as I sat 
crouching and cowering on the farther side of that rude 
habitation and awaited his approach nearly turned my 
mind, but, as if by magic there flashed through my 
bewildered brain the realization of my impending fate, 
and as quickly did I resolve to end my life rather than 
become the victim of the heartless brute. 

This determination I had previously formed in my mind, 
but, although his visit was an expected event, his sudden 
appearance had for the moment driven the thought from 
my brain. Within my hands, which were yet damp from 
wiping the tears from my face, were tightly clasped the 
heads of a portion of my treasured stock of matches, and, 
with a mental prayer to God that the poison might act 
with rapidity, and a fond farewell to mother and home, I 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 95 

raised them to my lips and strove to swallow them, but as 
tliey touched my tongue the nauseous odor and taste 
caused me to spit them from my mouth with an exclama- 
tion of disgust, for although I had known that to do so 
would be to forfeit my life it would have been an impossi- 
bility for me to have forced them down my throat in op- 
position to the action of my weakened stomach. 

As the portions of matches escaped my lips they fell to 
the ground before me a flashing, glimmering mass, having 
been dampened by the contact with my moist hands and 
the saliva within my mouth, and with a cry of intense fear 
the Indian sprang from my side, where he had by this 
time approached, and screaming and yelling at the top of 
his voice, bolted from the tepee. 

A glance at the dampened matches which lay before me 
at once led me to an understanding of the cause of his fear 
and with joy and new hope uppermost in my heart I 
quickly gathered them to my hands again and dampening 
them freshly rolled them between my palms. 

The frightened Indian soon aroused the entire camp and 
within a few moments the tepee in which I was confined 
was surrounded by a howling, jabbering and excited band 
of men, women and children. Sitting in the darkness I 
would await the appearance of their dark forms at the en- 
trance and then, opening wide my hands, would expose 
their inner surface, lightening and flashing with the dam- 
pened phosphorus, to their view, and with a cry of fear 
they would rush from the tepee. 

Thus did I keep those ignorant and supertitious red 



96 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



devils at bay during the period of several hours, when 
finally a severe thunderstorm arose and they left me in 
solitude and returned to their camp fires, but throughout 
the entire night I remained awake lest, falling asleep I 
should be found unprepared for their approach and fall 
victim to their will. 

Camp was astir early the next morning and as the day 
wore on I noticed that preparations were under way for 
some unusual event, nor did I witness these actions without 
fear and trembling, for amid all the busy hurry and bustle 
the Indians would pause in their work and glance frequently 
in my direction, the while keeping up an excited conversa- 
tion and jabbering. 

Round about a large pine tree the squaws piled armload 
after armload of dry branches and limbs gathered from the 
adjacent forest. This pile having reached a satisfactory 
height they next proceeded to a level spot near by, where 
they marked upon the sod two long parallel lines about six 
feet apart. 

This work having been completed the entire band was 
summoned to the scene, and the prisoners, including my- 
self, were led forth to the spot. I then knew, that, angered 
and frightened by my acts of the previous night, and 
believing that I was possessed of the qualities of a bad 
spirit and fearing that I would bring disaster to the camp 
and possibly employ my power to liberate not only myself 
but the other prisoners, they had decided to put us all to 
death. This supposition was finally proven to be well 
founded. 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 97 



CHAPTEK IX. 

The Mexican Buened at the Stake — The Indian 
Captive Beaten to Death — Eunning the Gauntlet 
^I Escape Death, but am Badly Wounded — A 
Long Sickness — I Peove Myself a "Good Spieit". 

The captive Mexican and Indian whom I had not before 
seen since their arrival in camp, but both of whom had by 
this time almost fully recovered from their wounds, were 
placed with the rest of the prisoners. 

Soon four stalwart braves approached and, taking the 
Mexican by the arms and shoulders, roughly led and 
pushed him to the foot of the pile of brush about the tall 
pine. Tripping his feet from beneath him they threw him 
heavily to the ground and with deliberation firmly bound 
with rawhide thongs his hands and feet. He was then 
lifted to the pile of dry boughs and placed in an upright 
position with his back against the tree, in which position 
he was securely bound, bands being placed about his body 



98 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

at the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. All preparations 
for burning the unfortunate man having been made, the 
Indians then retreated some little distance and soon 
formed a circle about the tree, in which circle the prisoners 
were all included, and with slow tread proceeded to march 
around and around, amusing themselves the while by 
pointing at the tortured man, distorting their faces in the 
most horrible manner and by sign and voice taunting and 
deriding him in every conceivable way. Finally all came 
to a halt, and while there prevailed the stillness of death 
itself there strode forth from the circle a sturdy warrior — 
he who had effected the capture of the condemned man — 
who advanced slowly to the side of the prisoner. Stooping, 
he gathered from a limb a small quantity of dry moss and 
with the aid of flints soon succeeded in igniting the same, 
Placing this amid the dry boughs, he stepped back and, 
with a smile upon his lips, watched the flames as they 
slowly but steadily increased in volume and spread from 
twig to twig. 

As the flame started the Mexican glanced calmly about 
him, his gaze finally resting upon my form. As our eyes 
met he spoke in his native language — which I learned to 
understand while in New Mexico — saying, "Adieu little 
sweetheart. Should your life be spared, avenge my death. 
Be brave and outwit the red devils for a time and you will 
be saved. Tell my people I died like a brave man. Adieu." 

Even as he spoke the flames were leaping about his 
person. Higher and higher they rose, now leaping and 
crackling about his ankles and lower limbs, now blazing 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 99 

with inten^/ty about his arms and body, and finally, as a 
gust of wind came hurrying along, streaming with intense 
heat far above his head and enveloping his quivering, 
blistered and tortured person in their fiery fold. 

Sickened by the horrible spectacle I covered my eyes 
with my hands in an endeavor to blot from my view the 
terrible scene, but almost before my hands had touched my 
face they were grabbed by a warrior and thrust to my side, 
while another standing behind me placed his hands on 
either side of my head and so held it as to compel me to 
look in the direction of the burning man. 

As I looked the second time, through the flame I could 
dimly see the blackened and charred form of the now dead 
man, and in but a short time the flesh gradually slipped 
from the bones in places, and falling to the fire beneath, 
would be devoured by the fierce flames. But a brief time 
and the rawhide with which the body was bound to the 
tree had parted, and the charred frame toppled forward 
and fell face down amidst the coals and ashes at its feet. 

The fire gradually subsided from a vast volume of leaping 
flames to a glowing mass of gleaming coals, and soon the 
only remaining evidence of the fiendish crime which had 
but just been perpetrated, was a bed of light, flaky ashes 
amid which might, here and there, be seen a glittering coal 
of fire and a blackened, charred and half -burned bone. 

The day was now drawing to a close — for much time had 
been employed in the preparation for and the enactment of 
the event just described — and no time was wasted after the 
close of that scene until another of equally as brutal a 



100 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

character was arranged for. 

Leading the prisoners to the vicinity of the spot where 
had been marked upon the sod the lines or paths I have 
heretofore mentioned, and placing about them a small body- 
guard, the Indians proceeded to form themselves in two 
parallel lines, facing each other and with toes to the marks 
or lines upon the sod. 

Thus ranged they formed two ranks several hundred feet 
in length on either side, and between which was a narrow 
passage way or "gauntlet." Every man, woman and child 
in that array of demons was armed with a weapon of some 
character, either a spear, battle-ax, tomahawk, huge club or 
a missile of like nature, and through between the ranks of 
those bloodthirsty devils, exposed to the blows of the heart- 
less wretches, were we doomed to proceed until by their blows 
we had been beaten to death — for to once enter that fatal 
gauntlet was as sure and certain death as to step before the 
roaring cannon's mouth. 

All were pushing and crowding for place at the end 
where the prisoners would first enter the gauntlet, for all 
were anxious and eager to be the first to have an oppor- 
tunity to deal the initial blow upon the defenseless head of 
the one whose life they were to take. 

At last all was in readiness and the Indian captive was 
commanded to prepare for the race for life — for in reality 
it was a race for life, as the custom of the Indians provided 
that in case a prisoner succeeded in passing through between 
the lines the entire length and was still able to walk upon 
reaching the opposite end from that at which he entered, 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 101 

then would he be given his liberty. 

Well did that Indian warrior, as he stood there, with 
head erect, hands tightly clenched and teeth firmly set 
know that he was facing death, but never did he waver or 
falter, but, on the contrary, as the word was given, he 
sprang boldly forward and with the ferocity of a wild beast 
fought his way, inch by inch, far down the line, but it was 
beyond human endurance to withstand the shower of blows 
rained upon him from every side, and at last, bruised and 
bleeding and completely exhausted, he sank in the midst 
of his foes and was beaten to death. 

I was now selected as the next victim and was command- 
ed to make ready for the. race. Again the dispute arose 
among the Indians as to position in the ranks, and while 
this was under way I noticed that which caused me to 
almost cry out with joy and thanksgiving — the approach of 
the chief and his war party, who could be seen galloping 
toward us but scarcely a mile distant down the valley. 

At the head of the ranks this time stood my deadly foe, 
the chief's son, and though I was some little distance as 
yet from him, yet I could perceive that his eyes glittered 
and glistened with the hatred of a devil, while a smile of 
fiendish glee overspread his ugly face. In every possible 
way I sought to delay the start until the arrival of the 
chief, but every instant the Indians were becoming more 
and more impatient and soon the command of my body- 
guard was emphasized by a savage kick, and away I sped. 

I fully realized that my only hope for life lay in m^- 
agility and presence of mind, and as I flew along over the 



102 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

short distance intervening between the starting point 
and where the foremost of the brutes held his tomahawk 
aloft fully prepared to deal me a fatal blow, I formed in my 
mind a plan of action by which I hoped to outwit them and 
reach the presence of the chief, who was by this time but 
a comparatively short distance from us. 

Running at the top of my speed I made straight for the 
opening between the two ranks, never varying in the slight- 
est degree from my course until I was within but a few 
feet of the entrance to the pathway, when with a sudden 
spring to the right I turned from my course and flew with 
all possible speed in the direction of the old warrior. 

So sudden was the movement that ere the expectant 
savages realized my intent I had gained several feet upon 
the foremost of my pursuers ere they turned and gave 
chase, but with a howl of rage they followed in my tracks 
and just as I reached the side of the chief's pony I was 
overtaken by the Indian who had stood first in the ranks, 
and received from his tomahawk a vicious blow on the 
right side of the neck, but fortunately the blade of the 
weapon struck in a slanting direction and thus failed of 
fatal effect. 

Upon regaining consciousness I found myself in the chief's 
tepee with that person, his daughter and the medicine 
man of the tribe by my side. The wound in my neck had 
been sewed with sinew — which, by the w^ay, is a small, 
thread-like cord taken from the spine of a deer — and about 
the same, to check the flow of blood, was wrapped a 
portion of my outer garments which had been torn for 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 103 

that purpose. 

For several days I lay in a half-conscious condition, but 
at last all was oblivion, and when I had again recovered 
my reason I was made to understand by the chief's, 
daughter that many moons had passed and that the sun 
had risen and set a vast number of times since the date of 
my receiving the injury. 

I was weak and emaciated, my lips were parched and 
swollen and my every symptom bespoke the presence of a 
raging fever. Soon, however, I began to improve and 
within the course of a week or two was able to raise myself 
upon my elbow and partake of a gruel or broth which was 
prepared for me. 

It was at this time that I learned the fate of the white 
woman. She, as well as two of the three remaining 
children, had been stricken with a severe attack of fever 
and died while I was lying at the point of death. Thus, 
upon recovering — which required several weeks time — I 
found myself the only prisoner in the camp, with the 
single exception of the twelve-year-old son of the dead 
woman. 

Hardly had I regained sufficient strength to move about 
the tepee before the chief, his daughter and the medicine 
man again gathered about me one evening, and with signs 
and gestures and with what I could understand — and I 
could now understand considerable — of their language, 
asked that I again bring the spirits to my presence and 
throw fire from my hands. I consented to do so, and at 
the same time told them as best I could that I was a good 



104 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

spirit and not a bad one. 

That evening I again made use of the matches and while 
my hands and face were aglow with the dampened 
phosphorus, approached each of the frightened wretches 
and, placing one hand over his heart and the other one 
over mine, told them as well as I could that I would bring 
them good luck so long as they treated me kindly. 

The ruse proved a successful one and from that time 
forward until my rescue I was the recipient of only the 
most kindly treatment from all members of the tribe, for 
both the chief and the medicine man — the two highest 
dignitaries of the tribe — at once proclaimed that I was a 
good spirit and that no one must dare maltreat me under 
penalty of death. 

I was at once presented with a handsome suit of 
buckskin clothes fashioned after those worn by the chief's 
daughter; at my command and for my own exclusive use 
was provided a beautiful pony, and with the chief's 
daughter as a companion I was allowed the liberty of the 
camp. Under these conditions it only remained for me to 
amuse myself as best I could and study the language and 
peculiar ;customs of the savage tribe with whom I abode. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 105 



CHAPTER X. 

The Sun Dance — Selecting Young Warriors — Driving 
Away the "Evil Spirit" — Details of the Methods 
OF Self-Torture — Selecting a Medicine Man — The 
Belief of the In dians Regarding Medicine Men — 
"An Indian is an Indian". 

While I might write much relative to these customs, 
still the two which savor of a barbarous nature most 
strongly and which are seldom if ever witnessed by whites 
— unless perchance they happen to be, as I was, in captivity 
at the time they are indulged in — are the sun dance and 
the ceremony of selecting medicine men. 

The sun dance was in the days of which I speak held 
annually by the Indians and was accompanied by the most 
horrible forms of self-torture. The ceremony was instituted 
as a means of selecting the braves from the "squaw men", 
the warriors from the "stay-at-homes." 

The medicine man of the tribe invariably officiates as 



106 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

master of ceremonies, his first duty being to lead to the 
medicine lodge all the young men who are candidates for 
self-torture and for the honors to be bestowed by the 
chiefs on those who can endure them most manfully. 
Each one's body is nearly nude and covered with war 
paint of various hues. Each carries his medicine bag, 
spear, bow and arrow, etc. 

After the medicine lodge has been entered the candidates 
place themselves in reclining postures; around its sides, 
and suspended over the head of each are his weapons and 
medicine bag. The master of ceremonies lies in the center 
of the lodge, with his medicine pipe in his hand, crying to 
the Great Spirit incessantly, watching the young men and 
preventing their communication with persons outside, or 
their escape from the lodge, for four days and nights, 
during which time they are not allowed to eat, or drink, 
or sleep. 

About the floor of the lodge lie a number of articles of 
great veneration, including which are four sacks of water 
which the Indians claim are "waters from the four 
quarters of the world," and which have been there "ever 
since the settling down of the waters." 

During the first three days of this ceremony some novel 
and peculiar amusements are indulged in at the open area 
which marks the center of the village. One is the bull 
dance, the principals of which are eight men, dancing the 
bufi^alo dance, with the skins of buffaloes on them and 
branches of green willow on their backs. 

Dividing into four pairs, they take their positions on 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 107 

the four sides of a small platform around the edge of 
which is hung a fringe of scalps, and between each group 
is a single man, making an even dozen in all. The 
medicine man leaves the lodge, and leaning against the 
platform, the while toying with the fringe of scalps with 
one hand and holding his pipe in the other, wails a most 
pitiful lament. 

The sacks of water are brought from the medicine lodge 
and four old men pound them with drumsticks, which, in 
addition to rattles and the musicians' voices, constitutes 
the music for the dancers. More or less often does this 
dance take place each day — the first day being given .to 
each of the four cardinal points; on the second day twice 
to each, three times to each on the third and on the fourth 
day four times. In the meantime the candidates are 
fasting within the medicine lodge. 

On the fourth day the ceremony of driving the "Evil 
Spirit" from the village is enacted. During the last of 
the bull dances, just described, the whole village is appar- 
ently greatly alarmed by the appearance of a man who is 
discovered running toward the crowd. His dress consists 
solely of a coat of black paint, and as he nears the gather- 
ing he rushes hither and thither in pursuit of the women, 
who fall over each other in their efforts to avoid him. 

He is checked by the master of ceremonies thrusting 
the medicine pipe before him. For some time the two 
stand glaring at each other, the intruder, although frown- 
ing vengeance, being held in check by the medicine man, 
with the charm of his sacred medicine pipe. 



108 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

At last the medicine man wins the battle and from that 
time forward the "Evil Spirit" is no longer feared, but, on 
the contrary, is the laughing stock of the women, who 
take from him the wand which he carried in his hand, at 
the same time reviling him and throwing sand in his eyes 
and smearing his body with grease. His power gone, his 
strength exhausted, he attempts to rush off but is followed 
by the women and girls, who beat him with sticks and 
stones. 

With the closing of this scene, preparations are at once 
made for the cruelties which are to be inflicted upon the 
candidates in the medicine lodge. 

Around about tall poles, which have previously been 
placed in position, forms a circle of men who are to take 
part in the infliction of tortures, the master of ceremonies, 
the musicians, the chief, and the doctors who are to pass 
upon the comparative degree of fortitude with which the 
candidates stand the ordeal. Still farther back stand the 
warriors of the tribe, then the younger males, next the 
women and girls, and forming the outer circle are the young 
children. 

From the poles in the center hang long rawhide thongs, 
securely fastened at the top of the pole. At the base of 
each pole two men take positions, one with a scalping knife 
which has been ground sharp on both edges and then 
hacked and notched by the blade of another to make it 
produce as much pain as possible, and the other with a 
bunch of splints. 

One at a time the candidates, who are already emaciated 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 109 

with fasting, thirsting and waking for nearly four nights 
and days, advance and place themselves in position for 
torture. 

An inch or more of skin and flesh on each shoulder or 
each breast is taken up between the thumb and finger by 
the man who holds the knife, and the ragged blade is thrust 
through the flesh below the fingers holding it, and as it is 
slowly withdrawn is followed with a splint thrust through 
the wound by the other man. 

Two of the rawhide thongs are then tied to the splints. 
Splints are also passed through the arms below the 
shoulders, through the thighs and the lower part of the 
legs in a similar manner, and upon these are hung the 
man's bow and arrow, tomahawk, etc. Through the wounds 
in the lower part of the legs is then thrust bands of rawhide 
which are firmly and securely tied, thus preventing the 
tortured man from stepping. 

All having been thus treated, the musicians are com- 
manded to commence the music, which is the signal for 
the candidates to begin the self-torture which they have 
chosen to inflict. 

Weaving, plunging, swaying from side to side, the young 
brave endeavors to tear from his flesh the splints which 
have been placed therein, and as the agony thus occasioned 
becomes unbearable he bursts out in the most heart-rending 
cries with prayers to the Great Spirit to sustain him in 
this dreadful trial. « 

As the candidates grow weaker and weaker, the men who 
have been selected to assist in the ceremony, spring for- 



110 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

ward and with willing hands throw the body of the tor- 
tured man backward and forward and from right to left 
until he faints and hangs apparently a lifeless corpse. 
During this ordeal, which usually lasts from ten to fifteen 
minutes, his tormentors keep close watch of him and when 
all signs of life have disappeared he is carefully lowered to 
the ground, where he lays like a corpse. 

The splints are pulled from the breast or shoulders and 
he is thus loosened from the rawhide cords. With their 
weights attached, all the other splints are left hanging in 
the flesh. He lies in this condition until he gets strength 
to move, for no one is allowed to assist or offer him aid, as 
he is now enjoying the most valued privilege an Indian 
can boast of — that of "trusting his life to the keeping of 
the Great Spirit in this time of suffering and extreme 
peril." 

At last, as his strength returns, he crawls, with the 
weights still hanging to his body, to where an Indian is 
sitting, with a tomahawk in his hand, before a small block. 
Holding up a finger of one hand, he offers it as a sacrifice 
to the Great Spirit, lays it upon the block and the other 
chops it off. No bandages are applied, no arteries taken 
up; the wounds are left for the Great Spirit to cure. 

During all this the chief and medicine man and other 
dignitaries are calmly observing the action of the various 
candidates, in order to decide who are the bravest and 
stoutest hearted, that they may know whom to appoint the 
leader of a war party or place at the most honorable or 
desperate post, and the women are chanting, in time with 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. Ill 

the weird music, a wild, wailing song, as tliey sway their 
bodies from side to side and forward and back, at the same 
time shading their eyes with their hand and slightly rais- 
ing and lowering their bodies with a slight bend of their 
knees. 

As soon as six or eight of the candidates have passed 
through the torture inflicted by being tied to the pole, etc., 
they creep, with their weights still hanging to them, to the 
vicinity of the scalp-fringed platform around which the 
bull dance took place. 

Here about twenty young men join hands in a circle 
around the platform and run round and about the same 
with all possible speed. Outside the circle each candidate 
is taken in charge by two young men who rush him around 
the moving circle until he falls. His conductoi-s and tor- 
mentors still rush around, drawing him after them until 
the splints are torn from the flesh, 

No one can help him even yet but the Great Spirit. He 
is left lying upon the ground until he is able to crawl of 
his own accord to his tepee, where friends and relatives 
await him and, after removing the rawhide thongs from 
the wounds in the lower part of his legs, at once tenderly 
care for and nurse him. 

Such was the sun dance in the years when the red man 
was a warrior, and while I was a captive in their midst, 
and before the civilizing influences of the white man had 
produced its effect; and such was the nature of the fiends 
incarnate with whom I was forced to remain for a period 
or nearly six months. 



112 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 

The ceremony of selecting a medicine man, while it is 
not accompanied by a like amount of self-torture with the 
sun dance, is still, nevertheless, a most barbarous practice. 

As, in preparing for the sun dance, the candidates are 
compelled to fast prior to the ceremony for a period of four 
days and nights. While the candidates are thus employed, 
the squaws of the village gather a large quantity of 
bowlders and rocks and build in the center of the village a 
huge oven, of sufficient height to allow of a man standing 
upright in the same, and covering a ground space of some 
4x10 feet. This is plastered with mud and made as nearly 
air tight as possible, with the exception of a small opening 
left on one side near the top through which the smoke 
from the fire which is to be built therein is to escape, and 
an entrance of sufficient size to admit of the passage of a 
single man at a time. 

When this is completed, within the same is placed a 
large quantity of dried grasses, roots, leaves and herbs, 
which have heretofore been gathered by the squaws for 
this purpose, and in addition dried boughs and limbs are 
placed in the oven and ignited. 

Thus, until the time for the testing of the candidates 
arrives, is a roaring fire maintained within the rude furnace 
or oven, and by the time the date fixed for the ceremony has 
arrived the same is thoroughly heated through and through 
and filled with the sickening odor of the burned grasses 
and herbs. 

The entrance, which has up to this tinie been closed 
with a large rock, is then opened and about the floor of 



A STOKY OF PEKSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 113 



the oven is laid, amid the ashes and coals, large rocks and 
bowlders. 

All is now ready for the important event, and soon 
the candidates, weakened and thirsting, are led forth from 
the medicine lodge and ushered to the furnace. One by 
one they creep through the narrow opening to the heat 
within, until three have entered, when the large rock 
which acts as a door to the entrance, is placed securely in 
position and those without await the outcome. 

Round about on the rocks within, breathing the stifling 
atmosphere and suffering from the intense heat, the 
would-be medicine men walk until, unable to stand the 
torture longer, they creep to the entrance and apply for 
freedom. Through a small opening between the rocks, of 
just sufl&cient size to admit of a view of the interior, the 
chief of the tribe continually peers, observing closely the 
actions of those within. Should a Candida te be overcome 
by the heat, the signal is promptly given by this dignitary 
and the unconscious man is quickly dragged from the 
furnace. 

Beside the entrance sit three chosen men, and as the 
candidates first enter the oven each selects a particular 
one. As they disappear through the entrance, on their 
way to the heat within, each of these three men cuts with 
a knife which he holds in his hand, a notch in a stick 
held in the opposite hand, and, at regular intervals 
thereafter, until the reappearance of the candidates, the 
sticks are notched, thus recording the space of time each 
has withstood the trying ordeal. 



114 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Thus, three by three, are the candidates compelled to 
give practical evidence of their fortitude and power of 
endurance, and, when all have undegone the torture, the 
records are compared and examined, and he who has for 
the longest space of time withstood the heat is selected as 
the one ordained by the Great Spirit to act as healer and 
counselor for the tribe, and for the remainder of his 
natural life occupies the position of a dignitary equal in 
importance with the chief. 

The belief of the Indians relative to these medicine 
men is indeed peculiar. They, in their ignorance and 
superstition, are of the opinion that the body of the 
selected man is thoroughly impregnated with the 
mysterious properties of each and every herb and root 
which has been burned within the furnace, and that the 
Great Spirit at the time the man was amid the heat of the 
oven's interior, endowed him with the power of ascertain- 
ing by a mere touch of the hand the ailment of a sick 
person and the particular herb or medicine necessary to 
be used to effect a cure. 

In their belief the medicine man also has the power to 
ward off all evil spirits and influences, protect all from 
harm and danger, and in fact perform all things usually 
accredited to the power of spirits. All members of the 
tribe look up to him as a being far their superior, and in 
their blind ignorance worship at his feet. 

One more incident which came under my observation, 
and which fully illustrates the nature of an Indian, I wish 
to mention, after which the manner of my rescue will be 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 115 

taken up. 

While upon a hunting trip, a small band of the tribe by 
chance found an Indian woman of a neighboring tribe 
separated from her companions, and effected her capture 
She was brought to our camp, but in some unknown 
manner escaped a few days later. The particulars of her 
homeward journey, after escape, I afterwards learned from 
reliable sources. 

Leaving our camp she crept through thickets and brush 
for several miles, finally coming to a small stream, on the 
banks of which there lived a white settler and his wife 
Beside a small spring which flowed from the mountain 
side this escaping captive halted, and there, amid the 
surroundings of nature alone, gave birth to a male child. 

Taking from her body a portion of her scanty clothing 
she wrapped the infant in the same, with her hands 
hollowed in the sand a small excavation, and, covering 
the little one with dry leaves and pine boughs, left it, well 
knowing that those who came to the spring for water 
would find the babe, and trusting to their kindness for 
its future care. Leaving the infant thus she proceeded on 
her way and ultimately joined her tribe. 

The deserted child was found by the wife of the settler 
and tenderly cared for. The good people soon learned to 
love the bright little fellow, and, being without children of 
their own, indulged him in every desire as far as lay 
within their power. He was given a good education, well 
provided with clothes and all necessary articles, and every- 
thing within the power of his foster-parents was done to 



116 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

make his life and home pleasant. 

But "what is bred in the bone will come out in the 
flesh", is an old and familiar adage, and in this case, at 
least, proved eminently true. Reaching his majority, the 
young Indian at once bade adieu to those who had thus 
befriended him and hurried to the tepees of his tribe, 
where he soon became happy in the possession of a filthy, 
greasy squaw, and entered fully into the barbarous customs 
of his nation. 

There may be exceptions, but experience has taught me 
that an Indian is an Indian in every sense of the word, 
wherever h e may be found, and amid whatever surround- 
ings he may be placed. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 117 



CHAPTER XI. 

A Discovery that Brings Me Hope — Arrival of Troops 
IN Camp — "You Want to Go? You Want to Stay?" 
— "Be Brave" — End of Captivity — My Brother 
Alive — Home Again. 

The summer was fast wearing away, and although I 
knew by the withering grass and coloring leaves that the 
fall season was with us and the long winter months fast 
approaching, still as to the exact month or day I was 
ignorant of the date, when one day upon the return of a 
war party, I made a discovery which led me to hope that 
my rescue would be an event of the near future. 

Carried across the backs of the ponies from which they 
had been shot were several dead Indians, and the party 
also brought with them several warriors who were badly 
wounded. These men were all wounded by bullets, and 
this circumstance, taken in connection with the fact that 
in the possession of one of the warriors I noticed a small 



118 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MOKTAKA. 

piece of blue '^soldier cloth" and a brass button, furnislied 
me with a conclusive proof that the band had been 
engaged in a battle with the soldiers, and also, judging 
from the number of killed and wounded and the absence 
of several of the party, I arrived at the conclusion that 
the battle had been a disastrous one to the Indians. 

My little companion, the chief's daughter, soon came to 
me with the news of the battle — for by this time I had 
learned to talk and understand quite well their language — 
and told me much relative to the affair. She also, with 
tears coursing down her cheeks, informed me of the capture 
of her sweetheart by the soldiers. While I appeared to be 
in sympathy with her in her troubles, still, were the truth 
to be told, I never heard more welcome news, nor that 
which caused me more happiness and joy, for I was 
confident that now that the troops were in the immediate 
neighborhood, my rescue would soon be brought about. 

That night additional sentinels or pickets were placed 
about the camp, as was the case the following day. 

Late in the afternoon word was conveyed to the camp 
by one of these guards that soldiers were approaching. 
Amid all the hurry and excitement of the preparation for 
an attack, during which the women and children were 
driven to the tepees, I was also commanded to go within 
and the chief's daughter covered me with robes. 

There I lay for some time, but was finally aware that the 
soldiers were in camp, for the sound of their horses' hoofs 
was plainly heard as I lay with my ear to the ground 
intently listening. 



:.~m 



A STORY OF PERSON"AL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 119 



Shortly the robes were removed from above, and looking 
up I saw the old chief standing oyer me. He beckoned me 
to arise, and as he took my hands in his he said, "You 
want to stay? You want to go?" 

I hardly knew what answer to give, for I dared not 
offend him, and while I studied for a reply, he continued, 
*You want to go? Cry much. You laugh glad, braves 
mad, kill pale-faces. White Lilly now go, come back some 
time. Come," and taking me by the hand he led me from 
the tepee to the presence of the soldiers, who, mounted 
upon their horses, were formed in a hollow square, with 
carbines in hand, near the center of the village. 

As we neared the ranks an officer stepped forth bearing 
a flag of truce, and by his side walked an Indian brave — 
the sweetheart of the chief's daughter. As the chief placed 
my hand in that of the officer, the latter stooped over me 
and in a whisper said, "Be brave. Cling to the chief as if 
you wished to remain." Following his directions I turned 
and threw my arms about the old warrior's body and clung 
to him closely. 

This pleased the Indians as nothing else could have 
done, and as the officer strove to loosen my hold they 
gathered around in a threatening manner, until, receiving 
a glance from my rescuer which told me more plainly than 
words that the time for my departure had come, I turned 
and walked with him to the side of his horse, was lifted to 
the saddle of the animal, which he mounted, and was soon 
on the way from that detestable spot, and near me, safe in 
the arms of a soldier, was the little white boy. 



120 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



As we a few moments later rounded a turn in the canyon, 
which hid us from view of the village, the horses were 
urged forward at their utmost speed, and by the time 
darkness had overtaken us we were many miles separated 
from the Indian village. 

There, as we halted for rest and food, for the first time 
was I afforded an opportunity to speak to my brother, who 
was a member of the company of soldiers — a detachment 
of the Denver Volunteers. 

My brother, at the time we were attacked, he now told 
me, lay for some time unconscious from the effects of the 
blow he received when knocked from the wagon. When 
he finally revived, he found that the Indians had 
disappeared, and with caution he crawled away, finally 
making good his escape. 

He found that not only had the settler — whose family 
were captives with me — been murdered, but also that 
a party of immigrants who were stopping there for the 
day, had also been massacred, their scalped and mutilated 
bodies to the number of fifteen or twenty lying about 
the cabin as they had been left by their slayers. 

Following the small stream, and traveling only by night, 
he, in a few days, fell in with a company of soldiers, and 
from that time until my rescue was engaged in searching 
for me, finally learning of my whereabouts from the 
chief's daughter's sweetheart, who was captured by the 

troops. 

After a hurried meal the journey was again taken up — 
no delay being permitted on account of the small number 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 121 

of troops and consequent danger of attack — and early the 
following morning we joined the main body of troops. 

Here, at the headquarters of the regiment, from which 
were frequently sent out small detachments of troops for 
the rescue of Indian captives, the little white boy died, but 
I remained for several weeks — until I had regained a 
portion of my lost strength — and then, as opportunity 
arose, returned to my home. 

I cannot, nor shall I attempt to describe that home- 
coming and the rejoicing indulged in by my mother over 
my return, but a faint idea of the joyousness of the 
occasion may be imagined by the reader when I say that 
although my head was bald and bare — my hair having 
fallen out after my attack of fever in the Indian camp — my 
body emaciated, my face tanned and haggard and my 
general appearance repulsive rather than attractive, my 
educated, haughty and refined sister-in-law clasped me in 
her arms, and drawing my head to her bosom, rained kiss 
after kiss upon my cheeks and brow, and for days petted 
and feasted me with kind words. 

It w^as the kindest welcome I ever received, and I can 
remember now that at the time she was fondling me I 
thought the perfume she had so lavishly sprinkled upon 
her clothing was the richest and most odoriferous of any 
that I had ever scented. Of course I was loving my dear 
sister-in-'aw all this time with all my heart, but then you 
knew that perfume was so fragrant I could not but 
notice it. 

The following winter — for it was now late in the fall — 



122 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

I remained at home and assisted in the care of the house, 
but throughout the entire season I suffered from the effects 
of the terrible ordeal through which I had passed, and 
was able to do but little other than the very lightest work. 

With the coming of spring, however, I had almost 
regained my customary health and strength. 

At this time there occurred an event which robbed us of 
our home, separated the various members of the family to 
a certain extent, and marked out for each of us a new 
pathway and future course through life. 

The little city of Denver, as I have before stated, was 
built at that time immediately at the forks of the Platte 
River and Cherry Creek. The latter, at the point where 
Denver was built was nothing more than a dry, sandy 
creek bed and along the banks of this, and even in the bed 
of the creek itself, were houses built. For years prior to 
our locating there no record was had of the stream having 
been other than in the condition in which we found it, 
and as the location was a fine one, here our house was 
erected. 

On the evening of which I speak, mother and I were 
across the Platte River, in the city proper, on some errand 
connected with the purchase of provisions, when, as we 
started upon our return, quite late in the evening, we 
could hear, far up Cherry Creek, the rumbling and 
roaring of a mighty torrent of water as it came tearing 
down the dry creek bottom in the direction of our home, 
the same being the destroying force of a huge cloudburst. 

Before we could reach our home the water was almost 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 123 

waist deep, and floating past us on every hand we could 
see, by the dim evening light, wreckage of houses, barns, 
furniture, etc., and above the roar of the waters was to be 
heard the cries and shrieks of women and children, the 
neighing of horses, the bellowing of horned stock, and 
many and various other sounds which told of the death 
and devastation the cruel waves were causing. 

Men, mounted upon ponies and horses, were directing 
their half -walking, half -swimming mounts from place to 
place, endeavoring to rescue those who were unable to 
battle with the waves unassisted, and to one of those 
brave men were we indebted for the saving of our lives. 

Riding to our cabin he allowed mother and I to mount 
the horse, while he walked and swam by its side, directing 
its course until the higher land was reached, where we 
were left in company with such others as had been 
fortunate enough to escape, among the number being my 
brother and his wife. 

There we were forced to remain without shelter and 
with our wet clothes still upon us until the following 
morning. For many days we were all compelled to camp 
as best we could upon the foothills, being furnished with 
food by settlers in the neighboring country, and between 
two and three weeks had passed ere the waters had 
subsided, and the entire party of unfortunates proceeded 
to the city and were kindly sheltered and fed by the good 
people of the town. 

Every building standing within the heretofore dry 
creek, or upon the immediate banks of the same. 



124 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA.. 

including the office of the Rocky Mountain News, the 
Methodist church and a large number of dwellings, was 
totally destroyed by the flood. 

Several lives were lost in the waters, and many who 
were forced to undergo the hardship of remaining wet 
and cold upon the foothills during the time we were there 
camped, sickened, and subsequently died. 

As to the loss we had suffered but few words need be 
employed — all was gone; house, furniture, clothing 
provisions, what funds we had possessed, and in fact 
everything with the exception of the clothing we wore. 

Such being the case the necessity at once arose of 
seeking employment of some kind. 

Among our acquaintances was a wagon-master, and to 
him my unmarried brother applied for work. The man 
knew of our misfortune, and, immediately employing my 
brother, at the same time offered me employment in the 
capacity of cook for the train. I accepted the offer, and 
when the train of one hundred wagons, each drawn by six 
teams, started on its long journey across the plains a week 
later I was the onl y female in that party of one hundred 
and sixty persons — mother and brother and his wife 
taking up their abode on a farm or ranch a few miles from 
Denver — and for many a long, dreary week, month and 
year thereafter my home was the wide, far-stretching 
plains and my abode the canvas-covered wagon in a 
freighting train. 



A STOKY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 125 



CHAPTER XII. 

Anecdotes of Incidents and Events Participated in 
AND Witnessed During Twelve Round Trips Across 
the Plains From the Missouri River to Rocky 
Mountain Points. 

The life was one accompanied not only by hardship and 
peril, but at times much of an amusing nature. 

The men were rough, uneducated and unrefined, but 
still, during the time I was with that wagon train — for 
twelve long, tedious round trips from the Missouri river to 
Rocky Mountain points — not one word of an insulting 
nature did I receive, not one act was there committed in 
my»presence which I could resent or interpret as intended 
as an insult. 

'Tis true these men were profane and addicted to the 
use of liquor and tobacco, in some cases to an extreme 
degree, but at the start winning their esteem and respect 
as I did, they would, I believe, have forfeited their lives 



126 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

had it been necessary to do so in order to protect me from 
harm and insult. 

My mother used to say to me when a child, "Libby, 
remember a lady can be a lady wherever she may be," and 
my experience has taught me that no truer words were 
ever spoken, and that so long as a woman so conducts 
herself as to win and merit the esteem and respect of 
those with whom she is associated, she need never fear but 
that she will be treated as a lady. 

I have Mved all my life among those reputed to be 
rough, uncivilized and uncouth, but I defy the world to 
produce a class of peoiDle who as a rule are more endowed 
with true, noble and praiseworthy qualities of manliness; 
who will more quickly aid in righting a wrong; who will 
more gallantly espouse the cause of a slandered woman, or 
who will more willingly extend a helping hand to a brother 
in need and misfortune, than the sturdy pioneers of the 
far west. 

Writers have searched with a persistence worthy of a 
far better cause, have drawn from their store-houses oi 
imagination vast quantities of fanciful material, and with 
the pencil of untruth painted word pictures calculated to 
convey the idea and impression that the average old-timer 
of the Kockies was little short of an ugly, vicious, degraded 
specimen of humanity roaming about the canyons and 
cliffs in a state of uncivilized ferociousness. 

This is all nonsense. These men were plain, fair-minded 
men, with minds bent upon the acquisition of wealth, for 
the possession of which they were content to brave the 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 127 

hardships and perils of a new country, and withal 
governed solely by their innermost instincts of right and 
wrong. 

Desperate, vicious, unprincipled and degraded men 
were as much despised by them as by their brethren of 
the States, and in proof of this I have only to point to the 
record of criminals hung or shot in punishment for the 
crimes they had committed, for the law had naught to do 
with their execution — their death and the avenging of the 
crimes they had committed was always at the hands 
of men who considered it their duty to see that right 
prevailed and crime was checked. 



SLADE'S KEEPSAKES. 

Along the trail from Denver to the Missouri River had 
by this time been built several station houses or stopping 
places for wagon trains on their way across the plains. At 
these stations a small hut would be erected from sod cut 
in squares and piled one upon another and then plastered 
with mud. 

A corral or enclosure would also be built near the house 
in which the stock of the train might be placed for safe- 
keeping during the time of an attack by the Indians. 

An effort was always made by those traveling to reach 
one of these station houses for the night's camping, if 
possible, owing to the protection which they afforded from 
attacks by the Indians. 

On one of our trips and while camped at one of these 



128 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 

stations there occured an event which will serve to illus- 
trate somewhat the existing state of feeling among the 
officials of the Overland Stage Company and the character 
of the men in charge of these large wagon trains. 

Connected with the Overland Stage and Freighting Com- 
pany in whose employ my brother was and with one of 
whose freighting trains I served as cook, was J. A. Slade, 
a man who was frequently involved in quarrels which 
generally resulted fatally for his adversary. 

The encounter of which I shall make mention took place 
at Julesburg, on the Platte River, with the keeper of the 
station, a man named Jules. Between the inhabitants, the 
emigrants and the stage people there was almost a constant 
quarrel over missing stock alleged to have been stolen by 
the settlers, which often terminated in personal encounters 
such as beating, shooting, stabbing, etc., and it was from 
this cause that Slade and Jules became bitter enemies, as 
well as from the fact that the company determined to give 
the agency of this particular division to Slade instead of 
Jules. 

The latter was himself a lawless and tyrannical man, 
taking such liberties with the stock of the trains which 
chanced to camp there and carrying matters with so high 
a hand that it became absolutely necessary for the company 
to make the change above noted. 

But he was not a man to submit to the authority of a 
new-comer, or, indeed, of any man that he could intimi- 
date. Slade employed a man whom Jules had discharged 
and at once open warfare was declared between the two. 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 129 

We arrived there one evening and a few moments later 
the coach pulled up at the door with Slade as a passenger. 
Hardly had he alighted ere he and Jules were engaged in a 
wordy wrangle. But this was soon brought to an abrupt 
end by the latter, who raised his gun and fired at Slade, 
who was unarmed at the time, wounding him severely. 
The wounded man soon recovered and a short time after- 
ward succeded in securing an advantage over his enemy 
and proceeded to wreak out his revenge. 

Tying Jules securely he took position near him, and in 
plain view of the tortured man, and deliberately shot him 
to death by degrees. He then cut the man's ears from his 
head and in many other ways mutilated his body. 

Some years following this the thievings and crimes of a 
well organized band of desperadoes in Montana necessitated 
the forming by the citizens of an organization known as 
the Vigilantes — mention of which will be found in a 
subsequent chapter. 

Slade had also drifted to Montana, but in place of being 
of the Vigilantes was looked upon as being in league with 
the desperadoes. Finally he was arrested and hung at 
Virginia City, the Vigilantes being his executors. After 
his death and while he still hung by the rope about his 
neck, search was made of his clothing and among other 
articles was found the ears which had been cut from his 
enemy's head several years before, which he had dried and 
preserved as keepsakes and pocket charms. 



130 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

CAflP LIFE ON THE PLAINS. 

The hardships of camp life are only understood by those 
who have experienced them in person. Should the 
weather be calm and pleasant, water and wood at hand in 
liberal quantities and provisions plentiful, all goes well, 
but many times this is not the case. 

One of the most dreaded events in connection with a 
trip across the plains is a sand storm. These at times pre- 
vail for days at a time and beggar description. Clouds of 
dust, sand and gravel fill the air, cutting a person's face, 
filling his mouth, nose, ears and eyes, penetrating to 
every nook and corner of the "grub box" and rendering 
every article of food cooked unfit to eat. 

Many a time have I endeavored to cook griddle cakes 
over the camp fire when the blowing sand would be so 
thickly sprinkled throughout the dough of the cakes as to 
render them unfit for food. Standing on the windward 
side of a covered wagon, many and many a time have I 
longed and almost prayed for the earth to open and receive 
me in order that I might escape the howling wind and 
blinding sand. 

But 'tis useless to hope to escape, for go where you will 
the flying dirt will follow and annoy you. Equal with that 
of the human beings is the suffering of the stock. Unable 
to face the storm of blinding sand, they will turn their heads 
from its blinding, cutting blasts and stand bellowing and 
bawling for hours and even days at a time. To travel 
under these circumstances is impossible and as one of these 
terrible storms arise the train is halted and preparations 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 131 



made to await its passage. An effort is made to camp near 
water, but many times this is impossible to accomplish and 
in such instances the suffering of man and beast is greatly- 
increased. 

Following one of these sandy blizzards I have seen the 
sand, as snow, drifted along the trail and in the low spots 
to a depth of two or three feet and in some cases much 
deeper. 

In the late fall the cold winds, drenching rains and 
blinding sleet and snow storms are encountered. Many 
and many a morning have I awakened to find the blankets 
which covered me weighted down with a layer of snow from 
two to four inches in thickness, and the air filled with a 
blinding mass of drifting, cutting sleet. 

To arise, dress and prepare a meal under these circum- 
stances is a severe test of a person's temper and they who 
pass through these ordeals with unruffled mind are fit 
subjects for angels wings and harps of gold. 



A **BEE." 

The wagon master of a freighting train is considered the 
ruler of the company. He it is who directs the movements 
of the train, assigns to each person their particular duty, 
and lays down the rules and regulations to govern the 
members, of the train. 

While gambling and drinking is seldom approved of by 
the train-master, still in many instances it is tolerated by 
that official — for to strictly prohibit the indulgence in these 



132 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

vices would be to inaugurate a state of affairs which would 
render most difficult the procuring and keeping of team- 
sters and other laborers, as all at that time considered these 
as privileged practices. 

Becoming excited and angered over the loss of money, 
frantic with disappointment upon seeing their last cent 
vanish from view, or, becoming engaged in a quarrel over 
some disputed point, these men would oft times engage in 
the most terrific hand to hand encounters, but were usually 
separated by their companions before they had done each 
other great bodily harm. 

The initial tragedy of the train of which I was a member 
was brought about, however, in this manner on the second 
evening out from Omaha, on our second return trip. As 
usual, gathered about the camp fire, seated upon blankets, 
in companies of four or five, with a small board laid on the 
ground in their midst upon which to lay the cards as they 
were played, were the men busily engaged in gambling. 

Suddenly among the members of one of these little 
groups a quarrel arose and springing to their feet they 
engaged in a fierce hand to hand encounter. Amid the 
curses and confusion there rang out the sharp report of a 
single shot, and, throwing his hands high in the air, one of 
the men fell, face downward upon the ground. The man 
who had fired the shot stepped backward a pace or two, 
and there, with flashing eye and face distorted with anger, 
calmly gazed upon his fallen and dying foe. 

The dying man was lifted and laid upon a blanket, his 
brow dampened and his lips moistened with brandy, while 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 133 



the man who had committed the terrible deed was taken in 
charge by the men and closely guarded. The wounded 
man rallied slightly, whispered the names and places of 
residence of his parents and sweetheart and fell back 
dead. 

Gathering about the body of the dead man the members 
of the company — after selecting a jury to pass upon the 
evidence and render a verdict as to the guilt of the mur- 
derer — listened to the story of the accused man. 

He admitted his guilt but offered as an excuse for his 
act the statement that he was intoxicated and so influenced 
by passion as to be unconscious of his acts. Without a 
word or question the men sat silently by and listened. 

As the evidence was concluded the jury, in obedience to 
a sign from the wagon-master, withdrew to the outer circle 
of the camp and within the period of a very few moments 
returned. Again seating themselves they awaited the 
signal for the presentation of their verdict. 

This being given, the foreman of the jury — an old, white- 
headed man — arose and in a low voice said: "Boss, that 'er 
man is guilty. Bill warn't a fightin' cuss ef he war treated 
squar, and nobody had ter burn powder ter keep his claws 
offen ther carcass ez long as they warn't onery an mean an 
give him a far, squar deal. This er feller whats let day- 
light thro' th' boy oughter stretch." 

The verdict was received with nods of assent by the other 
men and at once the work of preparation for the execution 
of the sentence pronounced by the jury was under way. 

Two wagons were drawn to a spot just without the circle 



134 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

about the camp and placed with their forward ends quite 
close together, the tongues of the same being raised and 
joined at the top. The condemned man was bound hand 
and foot, a long rope thrown over the top of the raised 
wagon tongues and at the signal from the wagon-master 
the struggling man was drawn from the ground to a height 
of some two or three feet and there left hanging until dead. 
The following morning, before the start for the day's 
journey, the bodies of both men were prepared for burial 
and then placed in a rude grave, side by side — the mur- 
dered man and his slayer — and at the head of the mound 
was placed two rough boards bearing respectively the 
following epitaph: "Shot. He was innocent." "Hung. 
He was guilty," 



A "PlLQRin." 

On our return trips from the Missouri River, we invaria- 
bly had with us, as passengers, people who were on their 
way to Denver or some other Rocky Mountain point. 

These people, as a rule, were from the eastern States, 
and, consequently, unfamiliar with the ways of the west, or 
the appearance and habits of the Indians and wild animals. 

These "pilgrims" as they were called by all western 
people, in case they gave the slightest evidence of fear of 
the Indians, were made the subjects of many a practical 
joke and never failed of furnishing the men with a constant 
source of amusement. 

Let a "pilgrim" venture a remark relative to the savages 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 135 

or wild beasts of the plains and, in the twinkling of an 
eye, the "wink would be passed" and one after another the 
men would spin a yarn of adventure which would cause 
each and every particular hair on the "tenderfoot's" head 
to assume an erect position. It was fun for the boys but 
rough on the pilgrim, but all looked upon this amusement 
as a well defined privilege. 

About as amusing an episode as I ever witnessed was the 
antics of a pilgrim Irishman, and about as hearty a laugh 
as I ever enjoyed was at the expense of a self-announced 
clergyman, both of whom were on their first trip west and 
principals in the event which furnished the "old-timers' 
of the train with laughing material for many a day. 

It was on a very windy Sunday, when, as usual, the 
train was resting from travel and the men were either 
lounging about their wagons or engaged in some occupa- 
tion in the line of mending and repairing broken harness 
or torn garments. 

In company with three or four of the mischief- loving and 
practical jokers of the company, the Irishman had 
wandered some half mile or so from camp and was being 
led farther and farther away by those in whose company 
he was — for it was their intent to treat the fellow to a good 
fright — when looking up he discovered coming towards 
him with mighty bounds and great rapidity, a large, dark 
colored object such as he had never before laid eyes upon. 

His cry of astonishment had scarcely escaped his lips 
ere one of the party, perceiving at a glance that Pat was 
badly frightened, cried out at the top of his voice that the 



136 THE CATTLE QUEEK OF MONTANA. 

^ ■ — ■ I — I ■ ■ ■■ — I. ■- . ill-. I ■ I ■ ^.i ■ ■■ I ■! ■■ I mm^l^ma^ 

Indians were coming. If ever an Irishman ran with the 
speed of a race horse that poor frightened son of Erin was 
the one. Followed closely by his companions, all of whom 
were screaming at the top of their voice, he legged it for 
camp, the direction he was pursuing taking him with the 
wind. 

So rapid was his flight that it was not until he had nearly 
reached camp that the large tumble-weed — a species of 
large, branching weed, which when ripened, breaks from 
its roots and is rolled about the broad prairie by the winds 
— finally overtook him. Glancing over his shoulder as the 
huge weed was about to strike him, he fell headlong upon 
his face and with hands clasped over his head cried aloud 
with fear and as his legs became entangled in the branches 
of the prairie wanderer, his prayers for mercy, his plead- 
ings for forgiveness for sins committed and his shouts for 
help were indeed mirth-provoking. 

The weed was soon loosened and carried on and when 
the frightened man at last dare raise his head and look 
about him he was alone on the prairie. Springing to his 
feet he rushed to camp where he was met with a roar of 
laughter. This aroused his ire, and advancing upon the 
men he vowed he would have revenge or death, emphasiz- 
ing the assertion with oaths and curses. 

The clergyman chanced to be passing from one part of 
camp to another just as this scene was being enacted, and 
attracted by the loud talk of the enraged man, neared the 
circle. After listening a moment to what was going on he 
step]ped to the Irishman's side and implored him to cease 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 137 

the use of such profane language. 

But Pat was in no condition to be argued with, and with 
a curse dealt the reverend gentleman a ringing slap across 
the face with his open hand. This was too much for th^ 
expounder of the gospel and he made for the Irishman, 
who, in stepping backward to avoid the former's rush, 
stumbled and fell into the "grub-box" which I had but 
just opened, as the quarrel commenced, for the purpose of 
securing provision with which to cook supper. 

Over the Irishman and "grub-box" went the preacher 
and in less time than I can tell it the men were rolling 
about in the midst of butter, pepper, salt, preserves, cold 
coffee, lard, and a "hundred and one" other things which 
had been contained in my "pantry." 

As suddenly as had been the attack, the clergyman — 
who, by the way was uppermost in the scramble — loosened 
his hold upon his antagonist and arose to his feet, saying 
as he did so, in a calm and solemn tone: "Gentlemen, I 
have allowed my temper to escape from my control. I am 
truly sorry that I have thus disgraced myself and forfeited 
your respect and to prove to you that I am truly penitent, 
I not only ask forgiveness upon your part, but I also bend 
my knee in prayer to the Almighty Ruler and beseech his 
forgiveness of my sin." 

As he, with upturned face and clasped hands, sank upon 
his knees it happened that he chose a spot thickly covered 
with prickly pears. The pain from a wound inflicted by 
these plants is most terrible, and as they entered his flesh 
he sprang to his feet with a scream, and at the same time 



138 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

the Irishman burst forth in a hearty roar of laughter at 
the misfortune of his late antagonist. 

It is hardly necessary to relate the sequel. That son of 
the Emerald Isle could not have been more roughly handled 
had that tumble weed been an Indian warrior and he been 
overtaken and scalped, for when Mr. Preacher had finished 
with him — the men refused to part them — he was more 
dead than alive. 



AN INDIAN ATTACK. 

Several times while we were on our freighting trips we 
had serious trouble with the Indians, but always managed 
to best them in the encounters. 

Our hardest fight was on the Little Blue River about 
25 miles below Fort Carney, where we had one night 
camped at a station kept by a man named Comstock 

Before harnessing the teams and making the start the 
following morning a scout was sent out to ascertain as to 
whether or not Indians were in the vicinity. 

He had left the camp behind but a short distance, and 
was still within our view, when he discovered that foes 
were in the vicinity and started to return. At once the 
Indians, who had been in hiding hear him, opened fire and 
at the same time started in his pursuit, and endeavored to 
gain a position between him and camp. The race was an 
exciting one and the scout had the best of it until within 
three or four hundred yards of the station, when an arrow 
shattered his arm and his reins dropped from his hand. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IK THE WEST. 139 



^us leaving liis horse to run at will. 

treeing the unfortunate man thus at the mercy of his 
foes, without an instant's reflection I leaped to the saddle 
of a horse which stood tied to the corral, and before any of 
the men, who were busy with their arms, could preceed me 
I was on my way to the rescue. Seeing me thus rushing 
into peril they called to me to return, but I knew that to 
hesitate now would be to allow the scout to be captured, 
and urging the horse to his utmost speed I circled the 
horse and rider and headed the frightened animal toward 
the corral. 

Arrows were flying thick and fast, but I was at that 
time an expert equestrienne, and, bending my body close 
to the neck and shoulder of my mount, I escaped all harm 
and reached the corral in safety. 

The men were now busy with the Indians, for the attack 
had by this time commenced in earnest, and while at first 
we had seen but a few of the savages, there now appeared 
on every side of us countless numbers. 

"With hideous yells and shouts of demons they would, 
with a confusing rush and in large numbers attack the 
station house and corral from all sides and directions, at 
times almost overpowering the brave men who were 
garrisoned within, but with unflinching bravery the mem- 
bers of the train repulsed their attacks and as the forenoon 
wore away the attacks became less frequent, and, finally, 
during the afternoon ceased entirely. 

But, knowing full well their methods of warfare, we 
offered them no opportunity for unexpected onslaught and 



140 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

remained within our little fort. The next morning 
witnessed a second battle, but, as before, the blood-thirsty 
savages were repulsed, many of their number being killed 
and wounded. For four days and nights were we thus 
surrounded before the Indians finally abandoned hope of 
effecting our capture. 

At the expiration of that time there arrived a small 
detachment of soldiers who were out from Fort Carney as 
a scouting party, and from them we learned the particulars 
of the almost complete annihilation of an immigrant train, 
at a point some twenty or thirty miles above the fort, on 
the same day we were first attacked. The train was 
plundered and burned, and of its members, at the time a 
company of soldiers visited the scene, between forty and 
fifty scalped and mutilated bodies were found. 

As a member of that train, on her way from the east to 
join her husband at Denver, was a lady by the name of 
Mrs. Tom Smith. The gentleman had been notified ]r-' 
letter that his wife would be a passenger on that train, mid, 
anxious to again meet his loved companion and hold in lils 
arms the little child whose coming was an event which 
had transpired during the time which had elapsed since 
last he saw his wife, he started from Denver with a team 
and buggy to meet the train and return with his little 
family. 

He had scarcely reached the side of the wagon in which 
his wife and child were riding — one of the foremost in the 
train — when at the rear end of the long string of wagons 
the war whoop was heard and the confusion and sound of 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 141 

fire-arms told of the attack of the caravan by Indians. 

Quickly lifting his wife and child from the wagon m 
which they were riding, he seated them in his buggy and 
springing to their side lashed his horses to their utmost 
speed. Soon a small band of Indians were in hot pursuit, 
but, as the start gained by the team was considerable, and, 
being burdened as they were with but a light load they 
were able to maintain their lead, the Indians after a few 
mile's chase abandoned the pursuit and returned to partici- 
pate in the bloody work at the train. 

When a point of safety had been reached, as the fond 
husband lifted his wife from the buggy and stooped to kiss 
the sweet lips of his darling child, the face he touched was 
cold in death, for, unconsciously during the excitement of 
the occuring events, and while frantic with fear lest her 
little one should, be taken from her by the demons by whom 
they were pursued, the mother had so tightly clasped her 
arms about the infant as to crush from its frail and tender 
little body the spark of life. 

All connected with this deplorable affair were numbered 
among my intimate friends, and, while I am not able to 
state that I was an eye-witness to the event, still as to the 
fact of its occurence I can fully vouch. 



142 CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER XIII 

My First Visit to Montana — Incidents of the Teip — 
Scouting — Indians Crossing the Big Horn Eiver 
— My Life Saved by an Indian — Lost in the Bad 
Lands — Clarke's Fork. 

My last trip across the plains marks the date of my 
settlement in Montana, since which time I have been a 
resident of that Territory and State. 

Leaving Omaha with a large train of wagons, we adopted 
the route commonly called the "Bozeman Cut-oflP." Passing 
Fort Laramie we travelled on, without serious mishap, 
until Fort Reno, situated on the Powder River, was 
reached. Several skirmishes were had with the Indians, 
but not until this place was reach was any of the members 
of the party killed or wounded. 

The evening before going into camp at Fort Reno, our 
herder, who was some little distance in the rear of the 
train looking after the stock, was surrounded by the savages 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 143 

and killed, and at the same time the stock was stampeded 
and stolen. 

Upon arriving at the Fort the next morning, a detach- 
ment of troops were sent out in company with a party of 
the male members of our train, and late the same day 
returned with the greater part of the stolen stock, which 
they had retaken from the Indians, after a sharp skirmish. 

The commanding officer at the Fort advised our wagon- 
master, upon our arrival there, to halt the train for a few 
days and await the coming of an additional party of 
travelers, for, in his opinion, our train was lacking in num- 
bers to venture forth in the face of almost certain attacks 
from the ever present red men. This advice was accepted 
and for nearly a week we rested and waited. 

At this place was then stationed a company of probably 
one hundred or one hundred and fifty soldiers — regular 
troops. The fort, as I now remember it, was built in the 
shape of a triangle, the base of the triangle being the side 
toward which the buildings all faced. The stockade on 
this side was of large cottonwood logs — with which variety 
of timber the banks of the Powder River is thickly covered 
— central in which were large gates to admit of entrance to 
the fort, and along the entire length being numerous port 
holes through which to fire upon an attacking force. The 
two other sides of the enclosure were built with large logs 
piled one upon another, against which, on the outside, was 
thrown up a bank of dirt. The space within the enclosure 
was several acres in extent and scattered here and there 
were the dwellings, barracks and stables. 



144 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 



The soil was of a reddish color — as was the water in the 
Powder Kiver — and of a clayey nature. 

This place, as I have before said, was our home for a 
period of nearly a week, and during that time our treat- 
ment by the commanding officer and the soldiers in general 
was of the most hospitable kind. Our stock of provisions 
was here replenished, our broken straps and torn garments 
mended and everything put in readiness for the future. 

journey. 

While engaged one day, shortly after our arrival, with 
the mending of a pair of buckskin gloves which I had 
originally made for my brother, but which were now quite 
badly worn, the commander of the fort, a very neat appear- 
ing and finely dressed gentleman, approached me and 
inquired as to where gloves of that kind might be obtained. 
I informed him that I had made the same and at once he 
requested that I perform a like service for him, agreeing 
to liberally pay me for the work. I consented to do so 
and, as I had in my possession a sufficient quantity of 
buckskin with which to make the gloves, at once com- 
menced work on them and in the course of two or three 
days had them completed. 

They were delivered to the gentleman by my brother 
and in exchange for the same we received several cases of 
canned fruits — a liberal compensation indeed. This stock 
of supplies afterwards proved of untold value to us, as will 
])e related later on. 

At the end of about a week's time our original number 

i been increased greatly by the arrival of other trains, 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 145 

and when we finally were ready for the start we went forth 
from the stockade at the fort two hundred and fifty strong. 

Our last camping place on the Powder River was at a 
place known as "Crazy Woman's Fork" and upon arriving 
here we found the dead bodies of a man and woman and a 
considerable number of dead and wounded animals. Near 
the man was the bleached bones of a buffalo head and 
upon this, in pencil, was written the words, "Look out for 
the Indians." 

Even in the throes of death had this noble-hearted, 
although roughly dressed and uncouth appearing man, 
thought of the safety of his fellow-men and with this 
thought uppermost in his heart crept to the rude tablet 
and there written words which, when read by others? 
resounded as a glowing tribute to his memory, inasmuch 
as they stood forth as a lasting evidence of his manliness 
and kindly instinct. 

Before leaving the place the following morning a grave 
was made and the two bodies accorded decent burial. 

At this point the question arose among the members of 

If 

the train as to which one of two roads was the proper one 
to pursue, and finally resulted in the train dividing, one 
portion following one trail and the other portion a different 
one. 

With the dividing of the train the portion with which I 
continued was left without a scout familiar with the habits 
and methods of the Indians. As it was known that I had 
passed the greater part of my life upon the plains and 
knew well the ways of the savages, I was asked by the 



146 THE CATTLE QUEEN OE MONTANA. 

wagon-master to lead the scouts, and from this tir-i^ 
forward to the end of the journey I performed that service, 
riding in advance of the train, and from the high points 
and knolls constantly keeping a sharp lookout for signs 
which told of the presence of the foes, and, although on 
one or two occasions we had short skirmishes with the 
savages, still our train escaped a general attack. 

The next place for us to reach where whites were found 
was Fort Smith, on the Big Horn River, and a scene 
which I here witnessed I will particularly mention. As 
we neared the fort from the opposite side of the river to 
that upon which the building and stockades were located, 
we could, for some time before arriving at the river's bank, 
perceive that something of an unusual kind was taking 
place, for upon the banks of the stream were to be seen 
large numbers of people moving hither and thither from 
place to place, and all apparently employed in the work of 
some general undertaking. 

As we approached nearer we were able to discern that 
the people we had seen and been watching were Indians 
and soon discovered that the work in which they were so 
busily engaged was that of crossing the river. 

The Big Horn at this place was a wide, swift-running 
and dangerous stream and novel indeed was the manner in 
which these people transported their belongings from 
shore to shore. 

The band which we found thus engaged numbered nearly 
.000 and were upon their return from a council with 
.6 commander of the Fort on the opposite side, and were 




09 

P 



a 

o 

o 
a 
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a 



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A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 147 

at that time very friendly — and by the way, let me here 
state that one of the peculiarities of the Indians at the time 
of which I write was that at times no more obliging, 
accommodating and kind-hearted friends were to be found 
than they, but notwithstanding their acts of to-day no 
opinion could be formed of their attitude toward the 
whites on the morrow. Friendly one day, hostile the next; 
murdering and mutilating as the sun set and extending a 
friendly hand to the pale faces of another train as the sun 
rose — our only guide by which to j u dge of the treatment 
we might expect from them was the presence or absence 
of the gaudy war-paint. Were this decoration lacking we 
might with a fair degree of safety treat them as friends 
but were it present they were to be feared. 

Nearing the bank of the stream we halted the train and 
approached the scene. But few of the Indians had as yet 
reached the shore on which we stood, but many were 
already on their way across the stream, and those who had 
arrived were busily preparing to proceed onward. 

The manner of crossing the stream, was, as I have here- 
tofore said, a most novel one, and with interest all members 
of the train viewed its accomplishment. 

Taking a large buffalo robe or skin, the slave of tli ^ 
family — the squaw — would, with a sharp knife, cut small 
holes the entire distance around its outer edge. Through 
these holes was then laced a small rawhide thong in such a 
manner as to permit of the gathering the edges of the robe 
or skin tightly together, thus forming a large pouch or 
sack. Into this rude pouch would then be placed all the 



148 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

belongings of the family, such as cooking utensils, weapons, 
trinkets, medicines, etc., after which the rawhide is drawn 
tightly and the mouth of the sack closed. 

This is done while the robe yet lays upon the shore near 
the "water's edge, but not until those engaged in the work 
have removed nearly every vestige of clothing and are in 
condition to wade about in the water as they work. Mount- 
ing his pony the head of the family takes in one hand the 
reins and with the other grasps a long rawhide rope which 
has been attached to the buffalo-skin sack. 

As he advances into the water the squaw pushes the 
bundle from shore until a point is reached where the water 
is of sufficient depth to allow of its floating, when the 
young of the family are lifted to the top where they cling 
to the rawhide thong, edges of the robe or portruding 
handles of articles within. 

Proceeding on until the water becomes too deep for 
wading, the Indian throws one arm about the neck of his 
horse, places the end of the rawhide which is attached 
to the bundle between his teeth and with his disengaged 
hand aids himself to swim by the side of his pony, the sack 
containing the possessions of the family floating a short 
distance below him and being balanced and kept right 
side up by the squaw, who swims by the side of the same, 
employing one hand in the work of balancing the bundle 
and the other in swimming. 

The little ones perched upon the top watch closely every 
move or lurch of their "canoe" and are very quick to throw 
their weight from side to side as occasion demands in order - 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 149 

to prevent the same from tipping, and should the same by 
accident capsize soon again resume their former position, 
for all are expert swimmers and have no distaste whatever 
for an occasional "ducking." 

Thus, with an occasional mishap, did this band, one 
af te r another, effect their crossing, while we ourselves were 
engaged in a like task, but in a different method. Here we 
found a small ferry boat was in operation and upon this 
one wagon at a time, and with the team swimming by the 
side of the boat, was the transportation of the train from 
shore to shore accomplished. Two days time was employed 
in the work and a fee of five dollars per wagon was paid 
for the use of the boat. 

Three or four mules were drowned — and, by the way the 
handling of a mule while in the water is a most difficult 
task, for let but a small amount of water find its way into 
their huge ears and they will at once cease all efforts to 
swim and drown almost immediately — but further than 
this all safely landed on the opposite shore. 

Stopping but a few hours at Fort Smith we again 
journeyed on. As we made our way across the vast 
expanse of far-stretching prairie large herds of buffalo 
were to be seen on every hand, and with the coming of 
evening the animals would approach our camj). At times 
so thick would they become about us that the teamsters 
were obliged to frighten them away by shooting into their 
midst, for, while they did no particular harm, still while 
they were present in such large numbers our stock were 
prevented from finding good grazing. 



±dO cattle queen of MONTANA. 

Indians were, as usual, quite numerous, but at the same 
time very friendly, in fact a week or two after we had 
passed Fort Smith one of the red men saved my life. 

The event came about in this way. On a Sunday, while 
we were, as usual, in camp, there approached us a large 
herd of buffalo which were being pursued by a band of 
Indian hunters. As they passed close to camp a large 
buffalo bull was wounded by the spears of his pursuers 
and fell near by a spot where stood a small cottonwood 
tree. I had been watching the chase and as the wounded 
animal fell and was surrounded by the Indians, who circled 
about at a short distance from him, I approached the 
scene for the purpose of obtaining a closer and better view 
of the maneuvers of the hunters. 

I had reached a point distant possibly a hundred yards 
or so from the wounded bull when the animal suddenly 
sprang to his feet, broke through the circle of horsemen, 
and, as chance would have it, made straight for me. I must 
admit that as I saw that enraged and frantic animal 
advancing with lowered head and flashing eyes and heard 
his deep and thundering bellowings of rage, I was scarcely 
able to move hand or foot, but my wits were soon about me 
and in an instant I was fleeing from the brute with all 
possible speed. 

Running for the small tree which stood near by I 
succeeded in reaching it a few feet in advance of my 
pursuer, and as I neared it threw out one arm and catching 
about the trunk of the tree, stopped myself, while the 
beast went thundering by, unable to turn and stop as 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 151 

quickly- as I had done. 

By this time one of the Indians was close by my side, 
and, grasping my hand drew me to the pony's back. But 
we were none too quick, as the buflPalo had by this time 
turned and was almost upon us. With yells and kicks the 
Indian urged the pony at a terrific pace direct for the 
camp while closely following us was the wounded bull. 

On we went, into camp, through and beyond, circling to 
the right and again approached the train from which the 
men were by this time hurrying, with rifles in hand, to our 
rescue. As we passed within close range a dozen rifles 
were raised, shot after shot rang out, and the wounded 
bull fell dead almost in his tracks. 

The Indians soon gathered about the fallen animal and 
in a very short time entered camp in a body and presented 
me with the tongue — the choicest morsel about the animal 
and considered by the Indians a gift which outweighs as a 
token of friendship anything else that may be given. 
They gathered about me closely and scrutinized my features, 
my hands, feet and clothing and with difficulty could I 
keep them from laying their hands upon me and pinching 
my flesh and pulling me about, for I was to them a great 
curiosity, inasmuch as I was the first white woman they had 
ever seen. 

They rode away in the course of an hour or so, but early 
the following morning, before we had started for our day's 
travel returned in company with a large party — in fact their 
entire party — and again was I surrounded and scrutinized, 
and at last compelled to seek refuge in one of the wagons to 



152 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

escape their pulling and hauling. 

A day or two more of travel and, ere we were scarcely 
aware of the fact, we were wandering, lost and bewildered 
in the midst of the "bad lands." 

Many an^ many a time have I thought of those terrible 
days, when, weary, discouraged, suffering for want of water, 
we w^andered from place to place, advancing only to find 
that instead of improving our condition we had struggled 
forward into a place much worse than we had but just left, 
but never have I yet been able to find words which would 
convey in the most limited degree, a faint idea of the hard- 
ships, discomforts and discouragements we experienced. 

The formation of the country was, while not mountainous, 
still rough aaad hilly, and partook in a marked degree of 
the nature of a large marsh. About on every hand were 
scattered large rock and bowlders, and here and there were 
large bare spots, resembling places where water had 
once stood, but were now dry. The soil was a reddish- 
brown clay, resembling very much ground and finely 
broken rock, while the spots of which I speak — alkali mud 
springs — were on the surface white, and presented the 
appearance of large, bare rocks. The vegetation was 
limited and consisted almost entirely of small brush, called 
'•grease- wood," and a variety of weed known as "soap- weed ' 
Even the most solid of ground would shake and tremble 
beneath the weight of the wagons and teams as if beneath 
were only water and mud. 

During the first day or two of our wanderings after 
entering these "bad lands," we would occasionally find a 



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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 153 

small quantity of water in a "buffalo wallow." These were 
X^laces where a small and partially dried up lake existed 
and the dirt had been pawed from a spot and stamped by 
the buffalo until a large circular depression or hole was 
formed, and where, amid their own manure and urine and 
the mud and water of the pond or minature lake the animals 
would stand hour after hour through the day fighting flies. 

The water in these places would be filthy and stale and 
covered with a greenish slime, but still as we became 
almost dead from thirst, we finally were compelled to dip 
the liquid from these "wallows," and, after straining it as 
best we could, boil the same and make coffee which we 
drank rather than die. 

Approaching one of these filthy holes the teams and 
stock would become almost unmanageable and only by the 
greatest effort on the part of all members of the train could 
they be restrained from rushing into the very midst of the 
"wallow." 

At last these places disappeared entirely and thus were 
we deprived of even this means of quenching thirst. Then 
were we compelled to open the cans of fruit which I had 
received from the commanding officer at Fort Reno and 
moisten our lips and throats with the juice and liquid 
therein contained. For three days this was our only drink 
and the last day of this terrible suffering we were without 
liquid of any kind, for our supply of canned fruit had been 
consumed. 

As we proceeded into the very heart of this terrible 
country it was with extreme difficulty that even the slightest 



154 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

progress could be made. The men and teams both 
became greatly weakened by reason of lack of food and 
drink, for there was no grazing for the teams, and owing 
to lack of water with which to cook, our provisions were 
soon exhausted, and as the teams and wagons would sink 
into the alkali mud it would be with the utmost difficulty 
that they were extricated. 

Several teams were thus lost as at times places would be 
encountered where an animal would suddenly sink from 
sight, and before help could be rendered would entirely 
disappear beneath the apparently half -dry mud. 

In advance of the train were constantly several men 
walking with sticks in hand prospecting a road and testing 
with the long poles which they carried the character of 
every foot of ground over which the teams were to pass, but 
still, notwithstanding this precaution, scarcely a half hour 
passed but that some team would be mired or some wagon 
securely stuck in the treacherous soil, for even were the 
trail apparently dry and solid, with the passing of the first 
few wagons it would begin to become dangerous and by 
the time the rear of the train had reached the spot would 
be almost impassable. 

At night, after the camp had been made, countless hordes 
of large, gaunt, ferocious wolves would hover about, and 
were only restrained from attacking the stock of the train 
by guards or pickets posted about the outer circle of the 
camp. Throughout the livelong night their howling and 
snarling would keep us awake, while the stock, frantic with 
fear, were almost constantly engaged in an effort to break 



A STOBY OF PEESONAL EXPEKIEKCE IK THE WEST. 155 

from control. 

Thus did we struggle on, longing, hoping and praying 
for sight of water, when on the fourth day we eventually 
emerged from this vast, desolate and treacherous dry 
swamp and mounted the foothills of a mountain range. 

Then came the work of cutting a road through the 
timber which covered the side of the mountain at the base 
of which we were. With bodies weakened from the effects 
of the long fasting and thirsting the men bravely under- 
took the task and the teams were with difficulty urged 
forward. 

As the forward wagon reached the summit of the mount 
from the occupants there arose a long, joyous halloo, and 
as the sound was carried on and on down the long line it 
was interpreted aright and all knew that water was near at 
hand. 

Hastily alighting from the wagon the teamster who had 
first made the glad discovery, loosened his team from their 
fastenings and down the opposite mountain side they raced, 
he himself following. As the other teams arrived his 
example was practiced by all and soon all were drinking 
from the waters of Clarke's Fork, for it was at this stream 
we had arrived. 

A person who has never experienced the terrible torture 
of intense thirst has not the slightest conception of the 
agony and suffering occasioned thereby. After the second 
day our lips became parched and swollen and our very 
tongues began to swell and refuse to act. The keen 
appetite experienced during the first two days entirely dis- 



156 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

appeared and we suffered but little from lack of food. But 
it seemed that our very bodies would burst into flame in 
their intense craving for water. Pains, sharp, penetrating 
and torturesome would dart from limb to limb, our eyes 
grew dim and lustreless, our heads throbbed and ached 
with a pain almost unbearable and by the time we had 
made our way over the mountain's top and reached the 
water at the opposite base, many of our company were 
scarcely able to walk, while nearly every beast in the train 
was in an equally deplorable condition. 

As we plunged into that cool mountain stream and felt 
the water upon our bodies, hands and faces, and partook of 
long, cool, refreshing draughts, no words could fully 
portray our feelings of thankfulness and joy. All at first 
drank but sparingly and with united efforts at once set 
about the work of driving and leading the stock from the 
stream. This was finally accomplished, not, however, 
without much difficulty, after which the work of lowering 
the wagons from the mountain side was undertaken. 

This was a laborious task, for the descent was very steep. 
First came the "grub wagon" and this having reached the 
bottom safely a fire was kindled and I hurriedly prepared 
the men a meal. As with the water, no one indulged to 
satisfaction their craving in partaking of the food at first, 
and in the course of a couple of hours we all again ate 
sparingly. 

It was now quite late in the afternoon, and the men 
having left after partaking of the second lunch for the top 
of the mountain to bring down the remaining wagons, I 




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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 157 

was alone at camp. 

Busily at work cleaning and putting away the cooking 
utensils, I did not hear or notice the approach of a visitor 
until, hearing the breaking of a bough behind me, I turned 
quickly and stood face to face with a large grizzly bear 
who was leisurely making his way in my direction, but 
some twenty or thirty feet from where I stood. 

With alacrity I mounted the front wheel of the grub 
wagon and tumbled rather than jumped into the box of 
the same and from there watched proceedings. Walking 
along slowly, as if nothing of an unusual kind were trans- 
piring. Bruin approached the "grub box," helped himself to 
all he found therein contained which suited his fancy, and 
without so much as a look in my direction, turned and 
walked on up a small game trail which led along the river's 
bank. 

Until he had arrived at a safe distance I neither moved 
nor spoke, but then unconsciously I gave utterance to the 
thought uppermost in my mind. "One would think," said 
I "that you owned this layout by the way you act, but 
that's all right, help yourself to all the grub you want for 
we can get more where that come from, but for heaven's 
sake don't drink the river dry," and I truly believe I never 
gave more truthful expression to my feelings in my life 
than I did then. 



158 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTEK XIV. 

On to THE Beautiful Yellowstone Country — A Brief 
Description of the National Yellowstone Park — 
The Paint Pots — Old Faithful — The Castle — 
Liberty Cap — The Canyon of the Yellowstone. 

Here we rested for three days, that length of time being 
required for the work of getting the wagons to the bottom 
of the mountain, repairing, washing, etc. 

At the end of that time we started on along the banks of 
the stream and camped the following night on the banks of 
the same river, feasting on mountain trout, which were 
indeed a luxury, following as they did, the fast of the few 
days previous. The next morning the river was left to our 
right and a far-stretching prairie, well covered with 
luxuriant grass and here and there crossed by a clear, cool 
stream along the banks of which grew as a rule considera- 
ble timber, was traversed during the next few days, the 
next stream of importance which was reached being the 



A STORY OF^ PEESONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 159 

Yellowstone River, a wide, but shallow stream, with a 
beautiful gravel bottom and clear, cool water in which 
there swam countless numbers of various varieties of fish. 

Here were killed several deer, buffalo and antelope, all 
of which were abundant. From here we traveled in a 
northerly direction, passing through a portion of the 
country now noted as the National Yellowstone Park. 

At this time this section had been but little explored and 
the world knew but little of its beauties and wonders. 

The wonders and amazing sights of this beautiful region 
would furnish me a subject upon which I might write for 
almost an unlimited time, but even though I attempted to 
fully describe this magnificent fairy-land of nature I could 
not do the subject justice. 

A visit to this place would fully convince the most 
skeptical that no country has grander natural scenery than 
our own. 

The traveler in foreign lands is chiefly charmed by the 
points of historic interest. The poetic soul visits the 
sunny land of Italy and is inspired by the thought that 
those hills and valleys once echoed to the voice and tread 
of classic poets and scholars. The chief attraction of most 
foreign countries is the evidences of former greatness, the 
ruins. 

But in the far west of grand old America the sight of 
nature in the wild grandeur of her own beauty, unnarrowed 
by the hand of man and unmarked by the ruins of 
ambitious rulers is what thrills the traveler. 

Here the soul is filled with wonder and admiration by the 



160 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



sight of nature's temples built by nature's hand. 

My wanderings have brought me to a realization of the 
fact that no one can appreciate the beauty and extent of 
our vast Republic until they have traveled over her surface 
from the broad lakes on the north to where the flowers 
bloom in perpetual spring in the south and from the rock- 
bound New England coast across the vast territory of 
plains and valleys and mountains, rich in every variety of 
wealth, to where the sun enters the golden gate of the 
Pacific. 

Indeed ours is a land of magnificent distances, of bound- 
less resources and amazing beauty, and no place can be 
found which offers a like illustration of this fact as does 
the vicinity of which I now speak. 

As I have before stated, this wonderland was at the time 
of my first visit an unexplored region and, therefore, its 
beauties were unknown to the world, and in its natural 
state. It has since been improved in many ways, the most 
noted of the geysers have been named and designated and 
man's ingenuity and craft has been added to that of nature 
to make it the Eden of the world. 

Many years after my first visit I returned with a pleasure 
party and passed several weeks in this now noted place, 
and the brief description I shall append hereto is as I 
found the Park on my second visit and after the geysers 
and other celebrated spots and rocks had received their 
respective and distinguishing names. 

The early miners soon called attention to this delightful 
region of the upper waters of the Yellowstone Kiver. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 161 

General attention was soon attracted to this most delightful 
portion of the world by the boiling springs, geysers, and 
canyon of the Yellowstone with its lofty falls and 
charming cascades. 

In 1872 Congress set aside this region as a "perpetual 
reservation for the instruction of mankind." It was styled 
a National Park in this act of Congress. 

This park is situated in the northwest corner of 
Wyoming and is sixty-two miles long and fifty-four miles 
wide. It might seem diminutive in size at first thought, 
being as it is only a small corner of one of the great states, 
but as compared with the old states, it is nearly equal in 
size to Rhode Island and Delaware corubined. Here again 
an idea may be formed of the "magnificent distances" of 
our country. 

The National Park contai ns by far the most noted 
of the three geyser regions of the world. I wish I could 
describe the scenes in a manner which would enable all to 
catch a glimpse by way of the mind's eye, but at best I 
can make but a feeble attempt. 

As I entered the Park by way of Lake Henry, I found 
the scenery most delightful and fascinating. In full view 
stands the huge "Sphinx," a tall crag rising above the 
surrounding peaks. At the top of the "Sphinx" a man's 
features may be traced, while the features and long beard 
of a Turk are plainly outlined by looking at it from an 
adjoining cliff in another direction. Near the base may be 
traced the form of a child leaning against its massive 
support. 



162 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

"Lone Maiden," a commanding column of rock, with 
her long wavy hair flowing down her back, stands a little 
further in the Park, near what are called the "Paint Pots". 
These "Paint Pots" are boiling springs, something in form 
like a huge wash basin and are filled with thick material 
resembling paint. 

Besides these there are mud springs that differ from the 
boiling springs only in being filled with a thick mixture 
that boils like mush. Bubbles arise and burst and spatter 
mud against the sides, thus building them up constantly 
into a crater. 

The first of the principal geysers is known as "Old 
Faithful,"which spouts its column of boiling water every 
sixty-five minutes. The explosion lasts only a few minutes, 
and there is a deep noise like the sound of heavy artillery; 
then the spouting waters form a sight ever to be remem- 
bered. As the column of water rises and falls toward the 
earth in rainbows, the steam rises and floats like a cloud. 

The water from "Old Faithful" rises from one hundred 
to one hundred and fifty feet. The geyser is called "Old 
Faithful" qn account of the regularity of its action. In 
about 1870 it is said to have spouted at intervals of about 
three-quarters of an hour. At first sight the steam seems 
to take the appearance of a massive female holding an 
infant in her arms. This appearance is so constant that it 
never fails to attract the attention of the onlooker. 

In oriental climes and earlier ages "Old Faithful" 
would have been deified and a massive temple would have 
been erected near, where might be worshipped the goddess 





'Castle Geyser," Yellowstone National Park. 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 163 



of little children. • 

The "Bee Hive," so called because of the shape of the 
mound or crater, with great noise throws a column of 
water that ascends about two hundred and twenty feet, and 
the water instead of falling back into the basin is 
dissipated in spray and vapor. 

The "Castle" varies in height, but sometimes reaches a 
height of two hundred and fifty feet. This geyser is 
named after its appearance, being that of a ruined castle. 
The sides rise irregularly, one side being broken down, 
so you can stand by it and look down into the crater. 

The "Giant" has a strong and massive appearance 
It sustains its eruptions from one to three hours, and 
throws a column of water about five feet in diameter, and 
reaches at its highest more than two hundred and fifty 
feet. It has been known to continue its action for three 
and one-half hours. Just think what an amount of boiling 
water must be thrown forth by this huge squirt-gun in 
that length of time. 

The "Giantess" is also noted. This geyser lifts the 
main column to a height of about sixty feet, but shoots a 
thin spire to more than two hundred and fifty feet. The 
sound of the eruptions is sometimes appalling. 

In the case of the "Castle" its greatest efforts make a 
deafening noise and shake the ground like an earthquake. 
Other geysers may be counted by the hundred, but a good 
idea of them may be formed from what I have written. 

There are in the National Park of the Yellowstone, 
distinct from the geysers, more than ten thousand boiling 



164 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

spring*. 

Why, let me tell you h ow I washed my clothes one day, 
just for the fun of the thing, when I was there on my first 
trip. I tied them in a strong bag and lowered them by a 
rope into one of these boiling springs. They came out as 
clean and fresh as a schoolmarm's Sunday-go-to-meeting 
gown. 

Food may also be cooked in these kettles of nature, but 
care must be taken in selecting the spring, as some of them 
have the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen, or to speak in 
plain language, tired, weary and ancient eggs. 

This valley of the Yellowstone where these geysers and 
boiling springs are situated is about six thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. Still higher, and toward the 
southern part of the Park, nestled among the mountains, 
nearly seven thousand feet above sea level, spreads out 
Yellowstone Lake, a delightful body of water three hundred 
feet deep and large enough to fl oat the regular navy of 
the world. 

The canyon of the Yellowstone is one of exceeding beauty. 
The moun tains rise from one to two thousand feet on 
either side, and in this deep cut, the water plunges onward 
through twenty miles of unparalleled scenery; now it 
plunges down the "Great Falls" more than twice the height 
of Niagara Falls; now it whirls past overhanging rocks; 
now it spreads out into the world renowned "Crystal 
Cascades," then gathers itself into a deep and narrow 
stream, as if to gain strength for its next headlong leap 
down some fearful precipice. 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. ItTe 



Always it is delightful, and always the beholder is 
entranced by its mingled power and splendor. 

The sides of the canyon are not among the least of its 
attractions. Their splendor cannot be described. They 
must be seen to be appreciated. I have tried to think of 
appropriate words to use in speaking of this place and the 
nearest I can come to giving even a faint idea of 
it is to say that it is as if Aurora, the goddess of morning, 
had gathered up the hues of the rainbow and mingled them 
with all the golden sunset and autumnal hues since the 
creation, and scattered them in broken fragments of beauty 
to charm the soul of man. 

It may be but a reflection caught from the waving 
banners of angels, but such divine colors play along the 
rugged sides of this canyon as do give us glimpses of the 
eternal. 

This is no fairy tale, for the rocks all red and yellow and 
brown with all their intermediate shades, and all blended 
with the emerald green of the trees, give the region the 
appearance of a very fairy-land indeed. 

In this I have not yet mentioned "Tower Falls," that 
rise more than one hundred and fifty feet, nor "Giant's 
Gate," the massive rocky opening along the canyon, which 
seems as if some huge being in primeval days had swung 
back the side of the mountain for a passway. 

Last, but not least, stands the "Liberty Cap," a 
stately rock, towering above the plain, and surmounted by 
Uncle Sam's trade mark — the American flag. There, night 
and day, this ensign of our liberty keeps guard over this 



166 CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

fairy-land of our nation and the wonder-land of the world. 
This section of country having been traversed we next, 
after winding about the mountains, came to the Gallatin 
Valley, following the Gallatin Eiver until Bozeman was 
reached. This town at that time consisted of but two 
houses — a store and postoffice. After leaving Bozeman 
and crossing another chain of mountains we arrived at 
our destination, Virginia City, having been on the trip 
nearly three months. 




"Liberty Lap," Yeilow&tone National Park. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIEKCE IN THE WEST. 167 



CHAPTER XV. 

An Innocent Man Hung — My Cabin Home — Experiences 
OF THE First Winter in Virginia City — The Vigi- 
lantes — Why Organized. 

Here the freight which had been brought by the train 
was unloaded and soon the teamsters and men separated 
and scattered about the town and adjoining country look- 
ing for work. 

Among the passengers who had made the trip with our 
train was a young man named Billy Wilson. Soon after 
our arrival at Virginia City he, like the rest of the men, 
started in search of work. Hearing of a place a few miles 
from town where he would be likely to secure a position, 
he started alone and on foot for the place, but during the 
afternoon was overtaken by a man who was riding one 
horse and leading another. 

Wilson was invited by the stranger to ride with him 



168 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 

and accepted the invitation. That night they camped 
together and were about to resume their travels the 
following morning when a party of Vigilantes entered 
their camp, in search of a span of stolen horses, and those 
rode by Wilson and his new-found friend were quickly 
recognized as the pair for which search was being made. 

Refusing to listen to or accept excuses or apologies of 
any kind whatsoever from Wilson or his companion, and 
assuming that possession was prima facie evidence of the 
guilt of the possessor, the Vigilantes promptly hung both 
men, the innocent as well as the guilty — for no doubt 
existed as to the guilt of the man with whom Wilson was 
traveling. 

The next day the bodies were cut down and brought to 
town for burial, and it was then we learned of the fate of 
this innocent boy — the Vigilantes telling of the statement 
he had made — and at that time also was his innncence 
established, for all knew of the date of his coming to 
Virginia City, and all who were members of the train could 
testify as to his innocence. But it was now too late for 
such testimony to aid the poor boy and all that remained 
for his friends to do was to accord his body a decent burial, 
which was done. 

Our arrival in Virginia City with the freighting train 
was at a date quite late in the fall, and, as soon as the train 
disbanded, which was within but a few days, brother and I 
at once set about preparing for the winter. 

We both had wages coming for the work we had done, 
but in less than two weeks after our arrival brother was 




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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 169 

taken very sick with brain fever and soon our funds were 
exhausted. 

I will tell you of our home. A small, low log cabin built 
from charred pine logs, the door being simply a large 
hole in the side of the wall and the lone window being 
of the same material. The floor was of earth, but this 
I eventually carpeted with four medium-sized cowhides, 
which were held in place by wooden pegs driven through 
the corners of the hide into the earth beneath. A 
eheet iron stove, a few tin dishes, a small box for a stand 
and table, with a tallow candle held in a home-made candle- 
stick, and the furniture and contents of the house is almost 
fully described. 

Amid these surroundings, and with brother to care for, 
as he raved with brain fever, did I enter upon the winter 
without money. 

Brother still owned the mule team with which he had 
formerly freighted and this I rented to a man, who wished 
to haul wood, receiving as payment for the use of the 
team, one-half of the net proceeds. It this way wood was 
provided. 

I then was afforded an opportunity to rent a sewing 
machine from a tailor who had decided to visit his old 
^ome in England, and, securing the same, paid $7 per 
:.nonth for its use. With this I managed to do enough 
work and earn enough to keep us in food during the early 
part of the winter. 

Besides the sewing for individuals which I did I was 
given a contract for making flour sacks, for whicn I received 



170 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

five cents each, and could, by working hard, complete one 
hundred of the same in a day and evening. 

While $5.00 per day would now be considered high 
wages for a woman to earn, in those days it was barely 
enough with which to purchase the necessaries of life. 
During the winter flour was sold for as high as $110.00 per 
sack of one hundred pounds ; potatoes were worth 60 cents 
per pound, or $36.00 per bushel; eggs $2.00 per dozen; 
butter $1.50 per pound and all other provisions were valued 
in proportion. 

This state of affairs was owing to the fact that snow fell 
to an unusual depth, thus preventing the freighting trains 
from traveling between Virginia City and Salt Lake City 
from which latter place the greater portion of our merchan- 
dise was received. 

While my brother's condition gradually improved still 
his recovery was very slow in coming about. As he grew 
slightly better and was at last able to dispense with my 
almost constant attention, I would leave him for a few hours 
at a time and go from cabin to cabin and cook for the 
miners and also do what lay within my power to make 
comfortable the condition of the sick, which I found were 
quite numerous in the neighborhood. 

As the winter lengthened and became more and more 
severe the struggle for bread became harder and harder 
and therefore, as may be imagined, my joy and thankful- 
ness knew no bounds when, on Christmas morning as I 
opened the rude door of my little cabin — which I had myself 
made since first I occupied the hut — I found sitting in the 







/ 




A STOKY OF PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. l7l 

snow, leaning against the side of the doorway, a sack of 
flour, to which was attached a small card upon which was 
written, "Merry Christmas from the Miners, in remembrance 
of your kind acts and cheerful words." 

This proved to be but an initial kindness shown me by 
these men, and during the remainder of that long, severe 
season our home was made quite comfortable and our stock 
of provisions kept fully adequate to our needs by means of 
the money I was able to earn with my machine and their 
occasional presents. 

Early the following spring our residence was changed 
from Virginia City to Harris Gulch, a mining camp situated 
about fifteen miles from the first-named town. 

Here brother secured employment in the mines which 
were that spring discovered, and, the miners building for 
us a small log cabin with a brush kitchen, I engaged to 
board the men. 

But before entering upon the narrative of my life at this 
place, mention of events which occurred in Virginia City 
just at the time I removed from that place to Harris Gulch 
will be timely. 

I refer to the organization of the Montana Vigilantes 
and the breaking up by them of the band of desperadoes 
and criminals who had gained a strong foothold in the 
Territory and were daily engaged in the commission of 
robberies and murders in this and other vicinities. 

In all newly settled mining districts is felt the keen 
necessity for some effective organization of a judicial and 
protective character far more than it is in other places 



172 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

where the pursuits of commerce and agriculture mainly 
attract the attention and occupy the time of the inhabitants 
and where less excitement prevails. 

The life of the pioneer settler in an agricultural country 
is generally one attended by hard work, of more or less 
isolation and privation; and it is usual that those who 
break up the virgin soil of the prairies or seek to clear a 
wild forest farm are of the hard working classes, unneedf ul 
of assistance from judge or jury to enable them to maintain 
rights which are seldom invaded and whose differences are 
for the most part, in the early days of the country, so very 
slight as to cause but little stir, and such as are usually 
easily arbitrated. 

The dweller in a mining camp is subject to constant 
excitement, perpetual temptation and an activity far 
different from that of the staid and sedate inhabitants of 
agricultural districts and indeed a vast difference exists 
between these and the motley groups of miners, merchants 
and professional men, interspersed thickly with refugees, 
sharpers and the dangerous classes that swagger, armed to 
the teeth, through the diggings and infest the trails leading 
to and from the gulches where lies the object of worship of 
all— Gold. 

In these newly discovered gold gelds the population 
invariably assembles at some particular gulch or spot in an 
incredulous short space of time. Let a lone prospector 
make the discovery of a rich lead or good pay rock and ere 
a month has passed to this new Eldorado has flocked from 
all directions hundreds and even thousands of people of all 



Mii' 






A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 173 



classes, ages and kinds, and as might be expected the 
daring, venturesome and reckless are the first to arrive. 

Thus is explained the reason why a new town or mining 
camp in the west is, until of sufficient age to possess a well 
organized government, invaribly controlled by the more 
lawless and desperate element. 

Suppose, for instance, that the police of one of our great 
cities were withdrawn for even the brief space of one 
month. Can you imagine the result, the crimes that 
would be committeed, and the extent to which the lawless 
and desperate would carry their nefarious callings? 

If, then, even in the old settled communities it would be 
almost impossible to restrain the dangerous classes, a fair 
idea may be formed of the task in a community where ten- 
fold in number, fearless in character, removed from the 
restraint of civilized society and beyond the control of the 
authority which enforces obedience to the law, and supplied 
with money to an extent unknown to their equals in the 
east, the desperate and criminal classes predominate. 

That the west has not been made a sink of iniquity and 
the scene of bloodshed such as was never before witnessed 
is due solely to the sturdy miners of the west, who as a 
rule are possessed of an unusual love of fair play and are 
prone to prompt and decisive action in emergencies. 

It is admitted that in the early days there was much of 
evil in the west, but it must also be remember that nowhere 
was there so much which was sternly opposed to dishonesty 
and violence as in the mountains The miners were care- 
less of personal appearance and outward show to a marked 



174 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

degree but possessed of the intrinsic value of manly 
uprightness in a measure no where else more fully 
developed. 

Middling or half way-way people were unknown. A 
person in making a trip toward the far west either became 
better or worse, and when once he came under the keen 
eye of the experienced pioneer was invariably soon weighed 
in the balance and compelled to seek the association of the 
class to which he rightfully belonged. 

Should there be needed a man to serve in any capacity 
requiring self-reliance, courage and integrity, let the 
search cease upon the finding of an "honest miner" who 
has by a jury of mountaineers been tried and found true, 
for search where you will a more trustworthy and reliable 
man cannot be found. 

One of the chief evils of a mining camp may be noted in 
the saloons which are invariably to be found in amazing 
number. These add greatly to the number of crimes and 
to the facilities for their perpetration. Poisonous liquors 
are sold to all comers and consumed in quantities sufiicient 
to drive excitable men to madness and to the commission 
of homicide on the slightest provocation, and the villainous 
compounds there dispensed under the name of whiskey are 
such as quickly transform the sober-minded into the raving 
maniac and arouse within the criminal the thirst for blood, 
which, although at times lies latent, still is always present 
within his depraved heart. 

The absence of good female society in any due propor- 
tion to the numbers of the opposite sex, also operates as a 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 175 

lack of restraint, for men become stern, cruel and rough to 
a surprising degree under such circumstances. 

Women of easy virtue are always present in number, 
habited in the most costly and attractive apparel, brazen-_ 
faced and bold, promenading the streets and receiving 
fabulous sums for their purchased favors. 

Public gambling houses are upon every street, with open 
doors and loud music, and are resorted to in broad daylight 
by hundreds ; and as a matter of course these places furnish 
another fruitful sourch of crime, inasmuch as all quarrels 
are commonly decided on the spot, by an appeal to brute 
force, the stab of a knife or the discharge of a revolver. 

In fact, all the temptations to vice are present in full 
display, with money in abundance to secure the gratification 
of the ruling passion of the mountaineer — the desire for 
novelty and excitement. 

Such was Virginia City at the time of which I write and 
under these circumstance it became absolutely necessaary 
that the good, law-loving and order-sustaining men should 
unite for mutual protection and for the salvation of the 
community. 

Once having united the demands of necessity provided 
that they must act in harmony, punish crime, repress 
disorder and prevent outrage or the inevitable result would 
follow that the throes of anarchy would envelope society 
and their organization would fail from the start. Secrecy 
of council and membership was all-essential, numbers 
were required to cope successfully with the bands of 
murderers, desperadoes and robbers who infested the 



176 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



country, and none but extreme penalties inflicted with 
promptitude would prove of avail in the attempt to quell 
the spirit of the desperadoes with whom they had to 
contend. 

Knowing and fully realizing all this and with the full 
knowledge that were their acts to become known to the 
desperate men with whom they were to deal, death would be 
theirs, five brave and true, law-loving and law-abiding men 
in Virginia City, in company with four men of like char- 
acter in Bannack, initiated the movement which resulted 
in the formation of the organization known as the 
"Montana Vigilantes," a tribunal, supported by an omni- 
present executive, comprising within itself nearly every 
good man in the territory and pledged to render to friend 
or foe impartial justice, regardless of politics, clime, creed 
or race. 

As if by magic the face of society was changed within a 
few short weeks; for it was soon known that in tones that 
might not be disregarded the voice of justice had spoken. 
Holding in one hand the swift-descending and inevitable 
sword of retribution and in the other the invisible yet 
effectual shield of protection the Vigilantes warned the 
thief to steal no more, comiaanded the brawler to cease 
from strife and struck from his nerveless grasp the weapon 
of the assassin. 

Was the struggle a mild and fitful one? No; for it was 
not before more than one hundred valuable lives had been 
pitilessly sacrificed and twenty-four miscreants had met a 
dog's doom as the reward of their crimes that the end came 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 177 



and the "reign of terror" in Montana was brought to a 
close. 

The cost of life necessary to bring about this result was 
indeed a heavy one and the necessity for the sacrifice u 
deplorable event, but the results which followed gave 
sufficient proof of the effectiveness of the methods 
employed. 



178 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Band of Desperadoes — A Road Agent's Arms — 
Capture and Execution by the Vigilantes of Geo. 
Ives — The Effects — A Word Relative to the 
Vigilantes. 

As may be imagined from what has been written, life in 
Virginia City at this time was far from pleasant. The 
ruffians who had first arrived served as a nucleus around 
which gathered the desperate, dishonest and lawless, and 
soon a band was organized with captain, lieutenants, 
secretary, road agents and outsiders who became the terror 
of the country. 

Their chief was a man named Plummer, who came to the 
section from Orofino and who had to his credit the killing 
of several men, the commission of many desperate deeds, 
and who was, withal, one of th e most hardened and desper- 
ate of criminals. 

He was considered the quickest and most accurate shot 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 179 

with a revolver of any man in the mountains and a man to 
whom fear was unknown. Naturally quick witted and 
intelligent, capable of winning and maintaining the friend- 
ship of those about him, he skillfully laid his plans and 
finally succeeded in securing his own election or appoint- 
ment to the position of sheriff, and was thus placed in a 
position which gave him peculiar facilities for the planning 
and execution of robberies and other crimes, for, as deputies 
he had associatsd with him those who were at all times 
ready to do his bidding and aid him in his nefarious 
schemes of plunder. 

The headquarters of the marauders was Rattlesnake 
Ranch some twelve or fifteen miles from Virginia City, 
which was often visited by Plummer, and the robbers were 
accustomed to camp in small wakiups of pine bou ghs above 
and below it, watching, ready for fight, flight or plunder. 

To such a system was the maraudings of these despera- 
does brought that horses, men and coaches were marked in 
some understood manner, to designate them as fitting 
subjects for plunder, and thus the Hers in wait were enabled 
to communicate the intelligence of their approach to the 
members of the band in time to prevent the escape of the 
victims. 

Usually the arms of the road agent were a pair of 
revolvers, a large bore double-barrelled shot-gun with the 
barrels cut short, and one or more knives or daggers. 
Mounted upon well-trained and fleet horses they would lay 
in ambush awaiting their prey, and, ias the traveler 
approached near them, would dash out on a keen run with 



180 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

the command, "Halt! Throw up your hands!" If the 
victim neglected or refused to do as bid certain death 
followed as the penalty, but in case he complied one or 
two would remain mounted covering the party with their 
guns, which were loaded with buckshot, while others of 
the band disarmed and searched the unfortunates and 
compelled them to produce forthwith all valuables or funds 
in their possession. 

This having been accomplished and a search for concealed 
property having been made, away rode the robbers to their 
appointed rendezvous, where they reported the work and 
divided the spoils. 

It was for the suppression of such crimes as this, for the 
restraint and breaking up of this band and the securing of 
safety to travelers and those possessed of money in pocket 
and valuables on person that the Vigilance Committee was 
organized. 

The fi^st of the band of desperadoes to be captured, con- 
victed and executed by this Committee was George Ives, 
and the history of his crimes would serve as the subject 
for a volume of considerable size. 

He was a young man of probably twenty-seven or twenty- 
eight years of age and propossessing in appearance. His 
eyes were blue and his hair and complexion light while 
usually his beard was closely shaven. His height was 
nearly six feet and his ordinary dress a neat suit of black, 
with the addition of a soldier's overcoat in winter. A white 
felt hat at all times constituted his head dress. The 
carriage of this renowned desperado was sprightly and his 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 181 

coolness imperturable as long practice in confronting 
danger of all kinds had made him absolutely fearless and 
he would face death with an indifference and unconcern 
both astonishing and amazing. It was this spirit of reckless 
bravado with which he was animated that made him the 
terror of the citizens. 

His last crime and the one for which he was executed 
by the Vigilantes, was the murder of a young man whose 
life he took for the purpose of securing possession of a 
team in addition to a considerable sum of money which the 
former bad in his possession. 

The murder occurred near a place known as Dempsey's 
Ranch, some few miles from Virginia City, and the body 
of the victim lay some time frozen stiff and stark among 
the sage brush whither it had been dragged before being 
discovered, and when found the marks of a small lariat 
were on the dead man's wrists and neck, showing that he 
had been dragged through the brush, while living and after 
being shot. When found he lay upon his face, his right 
arm bent across his breast and his left grasping the willows 
about him. / 

News of the discovery of the murdered man's body soon 
spread, and the man who had found the remains at once 
conveyed them to Nevada City — a place situated but little 
more than one-half mile from Virginia City and in reality 
a part of the latter town — where they lay for half a day in 
the wagon, exposed to view, after which a coffin was 
procured and the interrment took place. 

The sight of the murdered man who nad been thus 



182 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

foully shot down and tortured to death aroused amongst 
the citizens the greatest indignation and at once it was 
resolved that prompt and decisive action be taken to trace, 
capture and punish the perpetrator of the awful deed. 

Twenty-five men at once voluntered their services in aid 
of the undertaking and, leaving Nevada about 10 o'clock 
in the forenoon, after having before starting taken an 
obligation binding them to mutual support, etc., traveled 
on with speed and all due caution toward the valley of 
the Stinkingwater, the well-known rendezvous of the 
desperadoes. 

Avoiding the traveled road they proceeded onward until 
near their destination, when a pilot was secured and the 
march again taken up. 

About half-past three o'clock the following morning, 
after having ridden these many hours, sufPering intensely 
from the cold and being nearly famished with hunger, the 
party of brave men neared the spot for which they were 
headed, and in response to the command of their leader 
dismounted and remained silently waiting for the approach 
of daybreak. 

At the first peep of day the party again moved onward 
with caution, and soon the bark of a dog warned them of 
their near approach to a camp or habitation. Putting spurs 
to their horses they dashed forward, breaking ranks to the 
right and left at the same time and in an instant had 
surrounded a small wakiup of brush and halted — each with 
his shot-gun in position for instant discharge and bearing 
upon the rude habitation. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 183 



The leader dismounted and to the eight or ten men 
laying about in front of the structure, all wrapped in 
blankets, delivered the command "Lay quiet." 

Examination of the faces of the men disclosed the features 
of the person sought and upon whom suspicion of the 
murder rested and he was at once placed uia^er arrest. 

Leaving the main body of the party in charge of the 
remaining prisoners, the leader, in company with a guard 
of four, escorted the accused man to the spot where the 
murder had been committed and there accused him of the 
crime. 

Stoutly did he protest his innocence, but admitted 
knowledge of the deed, at the same time disclosing the 
name of the guilty person to his captors. The name 
given by this man was that of George Ives, and he it was 
who was afterwards proven guilty. 

Returning to the camp, Ives was arrested in company 
with one or two others and the start made for Virginia 
City. On the way to that place the accused man by 
strategy gained an advantage over his guard and before 
they were aware of hi^ designs he was galloping away at a 
lively speed. Pursuit was made and Ives captured, but 
not, however, before a chase of several miles had been 
given and the escaping criminal had been forced to halt 
by the use of firearms. 

Shortly after sundown the party and their captives 
arrived at Nevada and there the prisoners were separated 
and chained and kept until the following morning, and it 
was then decided that here their trial should be held. 



184 THi: CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTAKA. 



The forenoon of the following day saw the still growing 
number of miners, merchants and artisans wending their 
way to Nevada and all the morning was passed in consul- 
tation as to the best methods of trial and also in private 
examinations of the prisoners. Friends of the accused 
were to be found in all classes of society and these were 
busily at work endeavoring to create a sentiment in his 
favor, while a large multitude were there who were firm in 
the belief that the right man had been caught at last and 
resolved if such should prove to be the case to leave no 
loophole of escape in the way of technical forms of law. 

Much difference of opinion was developed upon the 
mode of trial, but it was finally decided that it should be 
held in the presence of the whole body of citizens and it 
was to be they who should render the ultimate decisions 
upon all questions; but lest something should escape their 
attention and injustice thereby be done, a delegation of 
twenty-four men was selected to hear the proof and act as 
an advisory jury. 

Late in the afternoon the trial of Ives began and 
continued until nightfall. During the night following 
the prisoners were again chained and closely guarded. 

With the opening of the trial the following morning 
the miners informed all concerned that the trial must 
conclude at 3 o'clock. This was agreed to. 

The scenes around that court of justice are not to be 
described. A wagon served as the Judge's bench, witness 
stand and prisoner's box, and forming a circle round and 
about this stood the stern and determined guard, attired 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 185 

in every kind of habiliments. 

The compressed lips and attentive faces of the jury gave 
full evidence of their firm resolve to see that justice 
should be done and the determination within each to do 
his duty without fear or favor. 

Close by stood the expectant crowd of miners, thought- 
fully and steadily gazing upon the scene and listening 
intently to the evidence, while beyond this close phalanx, 
fretting and shifting around its outer edge moved with 
quick and uncertain motion the waving line of desperadoes 
and sympathizers with the criminals. 

It was indeed a momentous crisis, but bravely and with 
unfaltering hearts did those sturdy miners and honest, 
law-loving citizens, step by step, inch by inch, struggle on 
in the endeavor that justice might prevail and right be 
done. 

The evidence in the case of Ives was not confined to the 
charge of murder, but further showed that he had been 
acting in the ' character of a robber as well as that of a 
murderer. There was an instinctive and unerring 
conviction that the worst man in the community was on 
trial, but it was a difficult task, even after all the proof, to 
convict him, surrounded as he was by friends and accom- 
plices, and at times it almost seemed that all the labor was 
to end in disastrous failure. 

But justice was to triumph at last, and the argument in 
the case having terminated the issue was, in the first place 
left to the decision of the jury who had been selected for 
that purpose, and they, after retiring and consulting, 



186 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

returned in little less than half an hour with the report 
that Ives was guilty — but one dissenting vote being cast. 

By a vote of those present the report was adopted and 
immediately following, amid the greatest excitement it 
was voted that he be forthwith hung by the neck until 
dead. 

The attempts of his friends to postpone this proceeding, 
and his own earnest appeals were passed by unheeded and 
at once preparations were made for his execution. 

An unfinished house, having only the side walls up was 
selected as the spot best adapted for carrying into effect 
the sentence of death. The preparations were simple in 
the extreme, but nevertheless sufficient for all purposes. 

Planting a long pole against the foot of one of the walls 
on the inside of the structure, it was allowed to lean across 
a cross-beam and at the place where the two met was tied 
the fatal cord, with the open noose dangling fearfully at 
its lower end. A large, rough box served as a platform 
and trap. 

In less than an hour from the time sentence was passed 
the condemned man was led to the rude scaffold. The 
excited multitude surged and swayed in all directions, 
revolvers flashed in the bright moonlight — for it was now 
quite late in the evening — and upon every hand were to 
be heard the mingled expressions of satisfaction and 
rejoicing over the triumph of justice and the curses and 
threats of those in sympathy with the doomed man. 

But amid all this, the guard stood by their positions 
with grim firmness and a determination characteristic of 



A STOEY OF PEIRSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 187 

honest and fearless men, ready to beat back the surging 
mass should they attempt a rescue. 

As the prisoner stepped upon the fatal platform the 
noise and tumult ceased and the stillness became painful. 
The rope was adjusted, and, the usual opportunity having 
been given the prisoner to speak, after a moment's waiting 
the command was given, "Men, do your duty," the box 
flew from under the murderer's feet with a crash, and 
George Ives swung in the night breeze, facing the pale 
moon that lighted up the scene of retributive justice. 

At last the deed was done. The law-abiding among the 
citizens breathed more freely, and all felt the most 
dangerous of desperadoes was dead — that the neck of crime 
was broken, and that the beginning of the end of the reign 
of terror had been witnessed. 

The trial of the remaining prisoners was a short matter, 
and resulted in banishment from the Territory of all, with 
a single exception — he having turned State's evidence. 

The Vigilantes from this time forward grew into general 
approval with wondrou^ rapidity, and were numerously 
and powerfully supported. From the first their members 
acted with a wisdom, a justice and a vigor never surpassed 
on this continent and rarely, if ever equalled. Miners, 
merchants, mechanics and professsional men alike joined 
in the movement until within an incredibly short time 
the road agents and their friends were in a state of 
constant and well-grounded fear, lest any remark they 
might make confidentially to an acquaintance might be 
addressed to one who was a member of the much-dreaded 



188 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Committee. 

Without hesitancy or faltering the organization contin- 
ued the work so well commenced in the conviction and 
execution of Ives, and ere their work was accomplished 
into the hands of justice had^ been delivered and in 
expiation of their crimes twenty-four bloody-handed 
desperadoes had been executed. 

While to do so may possibly cast an inference unintend- 
ed, I wish before parting with this subject to call attention 
to a fact upon which the reader may perchance have 
formed an erroneous conclusion. 

The work of the Vigilantes, while not in a direct course 
with the dictates of constitutional law, was nevertheless 
such as could be questioned by no one familiar with the 
existing state of affairs in the community in which they 
operated. In a well-settled and civilized community the 
administration of common law by self-constituted author- 
ity would be an outrage on mankind, but the sight of a 
few mangled corpses of beloved friends and valued citizens, 
the whistle of the desperado's bullet, and the plunder of 
the fruits of the patient toil of years spent in weary exile 
from home in places where civil law is as powerless as a 
palsied arm, alter the basis of reasoning and reverse the 
conclusion. Furthermore be it remembered that in this 
case the Sheriff was the leader of the desperadoes and his 
deputies were prominent members of the band. 

Gladly indeed, I feel sure, would the Vigilantes have 
welcomed the advent of civil or military power to force an 
obeyance of law, but until this was furnished it was their 




Tiie Vigilance Commiltee at Work. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIEKCE IK THE WEST. 189 

duty to preserve as best they could the society of their 
community and prevent and punish anarchy, arson, 
robbery and murder. 

The honest mountaineers of the far west are the 
noblemen of mankind. Untrammeled by the artificial 
restraints of more highly organized society, character 
develops itself more fully and more truly there than 
elsewhere on earth. Those who have slept at the same 
watch-fire and traversed together many a league, sharing 
hardships and privations, are drawn together by ties 
which civilization knows nothing of. As soon as towns 
are started at once commences the organization of society, 
and truly cheering indeed is the ready hospitality, the 
unfeigned welcome and the friendly toleration of personal 
peculiarities which mark the character of the better class 
of honest western people. 

The mountains may be said also to bound the paradise 
of amiable and energetic women. There seems to be a 
law, unwritten, but scarcely ever transgressed, which 
assigns to a virtuous and amiable woman a power for good 
which she can never hope to attain elsewhere. 

In his wildest excitement a mountaineer respects a 
woman and anything like an insult oflPered to a lady would 
be resented by any bystanding miner. 

For the preservation of those sacred rights and customs 
and the maintenance of these the Montana Vigilantes 
banded togethe 



190 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

Hareis Gulch — An Accident in the Mines — A Trip to 
St. Louis, Mo. — Return to Bannack, Mont. 

Among the miners at Harris Gulch were two brothers 
named Lindsley whose claim was but a short distance 
below the spot occupied by my little log cabin. Their 
mine like the others in that vicinity was worked by means 
of the action of water, or, as the miners would term it, the 
hydraulic process. 

From a large reservoir located far up the mountain side 
the water was carried to the spot at which the mine was 
situated in a large canvas hose, about six inches in 
diameter, and as it passed through a small nozzle, would 
be directed upon the bank of the mine where work was in 
progress. 

The action of the water as it was thus thrown with such 
terrific force upon the bank of dirt would soon undermine 
a large portion of the hillside which would cave to the 




HydrauLc MiLini;— Sluice Boxes and Canvas Hose. 



A STOKY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 191 



gulch below where it was then treated for the separation 
of the minerals from the earth. 

While thus engaged in work one of these brothers was 
caught by a caving bank, while his brother was absent 
from the mine, and lay for some time pinioned to th e 
earth by the bank of rocks and dirt which had fallen upon 
him. The accident occurred in the morning, and about 
the middle of the forenoon I started, as was my custom, to 
visit the working miners with a lunch. 

As I neared the spot where the unfo rtunate man lay I 
heard his groans and at once hurried to his side. He lay 
upon his face in the midst of a small pool of water, the 
earth piled high upon his lower limbs and his back so 
weighted down with the caving rock and earth that it was 
with the utmost difficulty that he could keep his head from 
being forced into the pool in which he lay. 

I at once opened a small drain and allowed the water to 
run from about him, and perceiving that it would be an 
impossible task to alone and unaided remove him from his 
perilous position, made him as comfortable as circumstances 
would allow, and hurriedly departed for a doctor and 
assistance. 

A journey of fifteen miles — for Virginia City was the 
nearest point at which a doctor's services were to be 
procured — lay before me, but urged on by t he thought of 
the suffering man I pushed forward with all possible speed 
urging the horse which I rode to the utmost limit of his 
endurance and in sea rcely an hour's time I had notified a 
physician of the accident and that gentleman was on his 



192 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

way to the mine. 

±x.s I rode along on my way to town I stopped at one of 
the mines and told them of Mr. Lindsley's condition and 
by the time I returned in company with the doctor the 
men had succeeded in liberating the injured man and had 
conveyed him to his cabin. 

An examination of his wounds disclosed his injuries to 
be of a very serious nature. One limb was broken and 
shattered in a terrible manner, his body was bruised and 
bleeding and his back so severely injured as to cause a 
partial paralysis of his lower limbs. As best we could we 
cared for him during the long weeks of his confinement 
and as he recovered sufficiently to be able to travel he 
asked that I undertake a journey to the States and care for 
him until his eastern home was reached, offering to pay 
me for such service a liberal compensation. 

With the consent of brother I agreed to the arrangement 
and late that fall — for he was unable to travel until that 
time — we left Harris Gulch for St. Louis, near which place 
his parents resided. 

Providing ourselves with a team and wagon we traveled 
south several hundred miles finally arriving at Bear River, 
in Utah Territory, where we found at that time the 
terminal of the Union Pacific Ry. which was being then 
built through to California. 

Boarding the train — which by the way was the first I 
had ever as yet seen — we proceeded on our journey until 
St. Louis was reached, at which place the gentleman's 
father met us and in his company we went to his home. 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 193 



There I staid until early the following spring when I 
undertook the long journey home alone. Going by rail as 
far as Ogden I then boarded a coach and after a long, 
wearisome journey arrived at Bannack, Mont, in April, 
the journey requiring about twelve days and an outlay of 
$225.00 for car and coach fare, besides meals which could 
not be procured for less than $1.00 each. Arriving here I 
learned that brother had, during my absence, become 
discouraged with the outlook in that section and returned 
to Denver, where my mother and older brother still lived. 
Thus I found myself alone in the world, although I cannot 
say that I was without friends. 

Before again taking up the story of my life here and the 
events following I shall now devote a chapter to the 
subject of facts relative to Montana, for it was now that my 
home became permanent in the then Territory but now 
State. 



194 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Discovery of Gold in Montana — Products of the Mines 
— The Stock Industry — A "Round-up" — "Branding" 
— "Cutting-out" — A "Stampede" — Driving to Market 
— The "Cowboys" — Farming Lands. 

To the average man, few subjects have more interest 
than the one of gold. S ince history first began its records 
gold and its mining have played an important factor in the 
history and destiny of nations. 

The general proposition of gold mining is undoubtedly 
quite well understood by nearly all persons, and, such 
being the fact, a 11 know that almost invariably the sections 
producing the precious metal are looked upon at first as a 
"placer camp," or, more plainly speaking, places where 
gold-bearing rock has become so disin tegrated by natural 
causes as to leave the metal practically free from its 
original surroundin gs and in such condition as to permit 
of its being gathered and saved by the use of water and 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 195 

quicksilver. 

While it may be true that the bonanza deposits of this 
nature have been already discovered and worked almost to 
exhaustion, yet there still remain in Montana vast area of 
mineral producing sections which are capable of yielding 
gold-producing rock or quartz which will return to those 
who work the same far more wealth than has ever as yet 
been uncovered. 

As to the identity of the person who first discovered 
gold in Montana there exists some doubt, but to Francis 
Finlay is generally accorded the distinction, the place at 
which the metal was found being accepted as Gold Creek 
and the date as 1852. Eight years later Henry Thomas 
engaged in regular mining, his first sluice box being 
hewed from logs. 

Two years before this Thomas Adams, Reese Anderson 
and James and Granville Stuart had found quite bright 
prospects in that same locality, but were hindered in their 
work and finally driven away by Indians, who became 
quite troublesome. In '62, however, the Stuart brothers 
returned and commenced work near the stream, their tools 
and lumber for sluice boxes being "packed" from Walla 
Walla. 

About the same time, near the place known as Pioneer, 
which was farther up the creek, Perry W. McAdow and a 
man named Blake located, and were supplied with tools 
and other much needed articles by Oapt. Mullan who was 
then commander of the forces which were engaged in the 
construction of a government wagon road which was being 



196 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 

built from Fort Benton to Walla Walla. 

It was in 1862 also that the famous Grasshopper mines 
were discovered, on the creek of the same name, by John 
White, and to this vicinity flocked hundreds of miners from 
various localities, the majority of them, however, coming 
from Gold Creek and the Orofino and Salmon Kiver mines 
in Idaho. 

It was the rush to this locality at that time which led 
to the establishment of the town of Bannack. The mines 
mentioned were very rich and the little town grew rapidly 
soon becoming not only the capital of Beaverhead County, 
but of Montana as well. In this place the only capital 
building Montana ever had is still standing. 

The following year Alder Gulch became famous, owing 
to the finding of very rich mines in its bed by William 
Fairweather. This was doubtless the greatest discovery in 
the history of mining in Montana. The yield of gold from 
these mines up to the present day is estimated at not less 
than a hundred millions of dollars, and its golden sands is 
still yielding its treasure to numerous busy miners all 
along its eighteen or twenty miles of length. 

The grand rush to this new discovery occasioned the 
starting of another town, Virginia City, and in but a short 
time this had grown to considerable proportions and was 
well entitled to the claim of 10,000 people. The town soon 
succeeded Bannack as the capital of Montana, retaining 
the same for many years. 

In the year 1864 John Cowan discovered gold in Last 
Chance gulch, where the city of Helena now stands. Again 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 197 

did there occur a shifting of population from one locality 
to another and in but a few years Helena was the leading 
city and also possessed the capital. 

Business increased in proportions very rapidly at this 
place, inasmuch as it was a general distributing point for 
a vast mining country, and soon the business buildings 
began to encrouch upon the miners' territory, this condition 
of affairs eventually forcing them from the gulch, and in 
portions of the city of Helena there to-day exists localities 
where the buildings cover sand rich in gold. 

The placer mines of Silver Bow and German Gulch were 
discovered at about this time and later came the rich 
"diggings" of Little Blackfoot, Jefferson, Washington, 
McLellan, Lincoln, Nevada Creek, Bear's Mouth, Pioneer 
and New Chicago. 

In 1865 Confederate Gulch, French Bar, New York, 
Montana Bar, Eldorado Bar and American Bar followed 
each other in rapid succession and as an illustration of 
their wealth I will state that in 1866 two teams, conveyed 
to Fort Benton for shipment gold dust from these mines to 
the value of two and one-half millions of dollars. 

Thus might the list be lengthened almost indefinitely 
but instead of enumerating more fully I will make mention 
of another species of mining which followed closely that 
of the placer. 

But a few years of placer mining served to bring about 
the uncovering of the quartz lodes from which the glaciers 
had ground the gold found in these gulches. 

Along Alder Gulch alone many leads of gold-bearing 



\ 



198 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

quartz were discovered, and soon after the finding of the 
same ten quartz mills were at work upon the ore, which 
showed the free, glittering yellow metal. 

At Mill Creek, Red Bluff and Sterling other mills soon 
followed and ere many years had passed scores of mills 
were running in the various mining sections. 

The pioneer mill of Beaverhead county was erected on 
the Grasshopper Creek near Bannack. The stamps were 
of wood, shod with wagon tires, and the pioneer smelter of 
Montana as well as the only cupel furnace ever built in the 
now state was erected at Argenta, a suburb of Bannack. 
Nearly a hundred mines were discovered in this district 
and at this furnace there was produced large disks of pure 
silver — for silver as well as gold was abundant in these 
mines — several feet in diameter. 

Thirty years ago, when hunters of gold made their 
discoveries through this section, with little effort they 
received quick and rapid returns for their labor. It was not 
so much the problem then how to procure their money 
through the summer as how to spend it during the winter 
— a statement which I feel confident many of our citizens 
who have passed through those exciti ng times can attest ; 
and a still more important problem was presented to the 
man who attempted to convey his gold dust, so burdensome 
by Aason of its weight, away from the confines of the 
mining camp and safely back to the States, for he not only 
stood great chance of losing his treasure, but, more 
important still, his life. 

Following this period came the time when ore began to 



A STOKY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 199 

be shipped east for treatment. The first period of this 
improvement embodied the hauling of excessively rich 
quartz to the mills of the east, but such ore must of 
necessity contain $100 and upwards per ton in order to pay- 
transportation alone. 

Then came the time when small gold mills were erected 
and crude operations were performed by which a small 
percentage of the contents of rich ore was saved on the 
ground. 

Passing on, the present period presents itself. Various 
appliances to cheapen the cost of production, such as 
steam appliances for hoisting both water and ore, followed 
by new ideas and inventions regarding automatic handling 
and crushing and extra percentage saved both by fire and 
water and by improved machinery have brought about a 
wonderful change. 

Mines to-day are paying yearly dividends which would in ' 
early days have been considered fabulous fortunes, from 
ore under five dollars per ton, that, tw enty years ago, could 
not have paid the mining alone had the metal been 
perfectly free. 

Prom 1862 down to and including 1868, it has been 
estimated by reliable authorities, the gold yield of Montana 
was $86,600,000 and continually since that date has the 
production been going on, and yet those who are considered 
in a position to judge of future prospects and probabilities 
assert that the vast treasure houses of the state have as yet 
been scarcely touched. 

In addition to the gold mines of which mention has been 



200 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

made there exists numerous silver properties both rich and 
productive and exceedingly valuable. 

The first silver mill erected in the State was at Philips- 
burg, in Deer Lodge (now Granite) county, where it is still 
running. The Wheeler pans of this mill were lost in the 
quicksands of Virginia River while on their way from San 
Francisco, but they were recovered and have since 
amalgamated many tons of silver. 

Copper is produced in extensive quantities, cobalt mines 
have been opened in several localities and coal exists in 
almost unlimited quantities. In Park county alone it is 
estimated that the coal mines will furnish 500 tons per day 
for 300 years, and in Yellowstone county the mammoth bed 
has from ten to fifteen feet of workable coal and contains 
500,000,000 tons, and the other workable beds will yield at 
least 300,000,000 tons. 

Vast deposits of iron ores await future mining. Large 
quantities of the hydrated oxide, carrying gold, form the 
caps of thousands of mines in the state ; bog ores are found 
in the Little Belt and Judith mountains ; specular magnetic 
iron exists in extensive deposits in the mountains; spathic 
ores in the coal measures and an extensive vein of black- 
band ore intersects the coal field on Bear Creek. 

Bismuth is found in the St. Julian mine in Emigrant 
Gulch ; antimony is mined in Missoula and shipped east in 
large quantities; stream tin is found in extensive amounts 
in the placers in various localities, and nickel occurs in the 
Belle Stowe mine on Thompson River. 

Sapphires are abundant in various localities, and these 








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a 

5 

Pi 



a 

o 



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C/2 





A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 201 

deposits will no doubt in the future produce great wealth. 
At Eldorado Bar on the Missouri are found oriental rubies, 
oriental topazes, oriental emeralds and oriental amethysts. 
Telluride of gold is found in some of the mines at Butte, ^ 
Mill Creek, Neihart, and in Tucker Gulch. Some from the 
latter locality assayed by the Bank of England, gave 
$325,000 per ton in gold. 

Thus it will be seen by this brief outline of the mineral 
products of Montana, that the state stands far up in the 
ranks of those of the Union in the way of mineral wealth. 

As to the matter of stock raising the state is unsurpassed 
by any in the Union. The subject of the live stock business, 
or the breeding, rearing and marketing of cattle, horses 
and sheep is one of peculiar interest to men of all 
vocations. 

The western man finds in it much of interest, as to a great 
number of them it is a means of money making. The 
tradesman, merchant and mechanic of the west are 
interested in it, for upon its success depends in a great 
measure his own. The eastern man is also interested for 
it is a part 6f his living, and, with a part of the laboring 
classes, its products, namely, animal flesh, is one of their 
rare luxuries. 

As with all trades, that of the cattle business in the west 
has peculiarities which marks it in distinction from other 
sections, some of which I shall note and endeavor to make 
as plain as possible to the reader. 

In Montana, as in all stock raising countries, instead of 
the word "farm" the word "lanch" is invariable used; the 



202 CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

common laborer is termed a "cow-boy" and the horse used 
is known as a "cow-horse." 

The first move of a man who intends engaging in the 
business of raising stock is to purchase or exercise his 
right as an American citizen and "take-up" a sufficient 
amount of land to give him a footing whereon to build a 
house and corrals. 

A point centrally located as to grazing lands and in 
close proximity to an abundant supply of good water is 
chosen and here is erected a small house and enclosure, or 
corral, both of which are usually of logs. 

The next move is to select what is termed a "r anch brand" 
and earmarks, and whatever letter or letters, figure or device 
he select he endeavors to have it as different as possible 
from those in use by other ranchmen in that section of the 
state. J. 

The selected "brand" is then recorded with the proper 
officer of the county, and accompanying the same is a 
statement of the number of horses and cattle he has at that 
time bearing the "brand" and ear marks — taking from the 
officer a certificate of his acts, and from that time forward 
all animals found bearing these marks are his property and 
by him may be claimed and taken possession of wherever 
found. The stock laws of Montana are very complete and 
provide ample penalties for their violation. 

Should a stock man sell an animal from his herd the 
original brand is "vented," or, in plainer language, above 
or below the first brand or upon some other part of the 
animal is placed a second brand, which is also recorded, 



A STORY OF PERSONAL :flXPERIENOE IN THE WEST. 203 



and which indicates that the original owner has relinquished 
title to the animal. To illustrate clearly, the "brands" and 
"vent" as they appear upon our own horses and cattle are 
here shown: 



Illustration showing design 
and location of the Collins 
"Ranch Brand." 





Illustration showing "Vent'' 
for Collins "Ranch Brand," 
the "7" on the left shoulder 
indicating that the animal 
has been sold. 




Illustration showing Horse "Brand." Illustration showing "Vent" for same. 



204 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

When the entire stock of a ranchman is disposed of the 
purchaser is given articles of writing, which are proper 
subjects of record, which are evidence of the transfer of 
ownership of all stock bearing the "brand" and ear marks 
therein described. 

The purchaser thus becomes entitled to the use of the 
"brand" and ear marks and may continue its use upon the 
animals which he has purchased and their increase if he so 
desires. 

The young animals are, to as great an extent as possible, 
branded while quite young. It is customary for the cow- 
boys of neighboring ranches to work in concert in this 
work, driving from the range to some one corral all the 
stock to be found, this work usually being done twice each 
year, both in the spring and fall. The work of thus 
gathering the stock for branding or shipment is termed a 
"round-up." 

When the stock is gathered they are driven to a corral 
and when they are safely enclosed the cowboys proceed to 
Catch the calves and colts with the lasso and draw them 
outside the corral, or as is sometimes to case, to one corner 
of the same, where another cowboy ropes the animal about 
the heels. 

Drawing their lasso tightly the struggling and frightened 
young animal is stretched at full length upon the ground 
and while one man with a sharp knife proceeds to cut the 
proper ear marks another places against its side, shoulder 
or hip, as the position of the brand requires, a red-hot 
branding iron which has been heated in a small open fire 




M 
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bo 

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ho 

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A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 205 

built close by. 

The heated iron burns not only the hair, but the skin 
and flesh as well, and the brand forever remains plainly 
outlined 

In deciding upon the brand of a calf or colt the only 
guide is the action of the young animal itself, as all are 
given the brand of their mother. They are watched closely 
and a calf which follows a 77 cow is given a 77 brand; a 
colt which is mothered by a C mare is given a C brand, 
and so on. 

When the work of branding all calves and colts thus 
gathered has been accomplished, those which do not 
appear to be mothered by any animal are separated from 
the rest of the "bunch" or herd and sold to the highest 
bidder. 

These animals are termed "Mavericks" and the money 
received from such sale is placed in what is known as the 
"Maverick Fund" — a fund which is handled by the Stock 
Association of which nearly all ranchmen are members, 
and devoted to the defraying of expenses of prosecuting 
violators of the stock laws. 

To supply with saddle horses a ranch whereon there 
is kept five thousand head of cattle at least seventy-five to 
one hundred mares are necessary, for as a rule only geldings 
are used as saddle horses, and during the time of the semi- 
annual "round-up" or gathering of stock, each rider is 
supplied with from eight to ten horses. 

This class of horses are hardy, small-sized animals 
bordering closely on the pony in appearance and size. 



206 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Their only food is grass and yet they are capable of great 
endurance and long journeys. 

The life of a cowboy during these seasons is far from 
being an easy one. Arising with the early morning they 
go hurrying hither and thither far away across the open 
prairie, about the foothills, up the mountain side and 
through the valleys searching for stock. 

As a "bunch" is found they are headed for camp and as 
soon as that place has been reached, again the tireless rider 
gallops away in search of more animals. 

They camp wherever night overtakes them and early the 
next morning are again in the saddle and away across the 
prairie. 

At the general camp or headquarters is the "grub wagon" 
and cook for the "round-up" and for those who are within 
easy distance as the hour for meals arrive is provided good 
food, their employers paying therefor at a stated rate 
per day for each man. 

The cowboys, as a rule, are bright, active, intelligent 
young men, generous and liberal to a fault, and withal 
possessed of many noble qualities. True it is there are 
some worthless, low and degraded men among their 
number but those of this character constitute but a small 
minority. 

For sixteen long years my home has been surrounded by 
these men and they have been associated with my daily 
life, and after this experience I am prepared to say that the 
average Montana cowboy is a fair-minded, noble-hearted, 
generous and whole-souled man. 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 207 



Many and many is the poor boy whose broken arm or 
limb I have bandaged as he lay upon the rocks or hard, 
dry earth of the prairie, far from house or habitation, 
where he had been injured by a vicious horse or enraged 
animal, and in this manner have I earned the title among 
them of "Aunty" or "Mother" and in the possession of 
such cognomen I cannot but feel exceeding pride, for I 
have learned to look upon the "boys," now that I know 
them so well, as true types of manly courage, generosity 
and activity. 

Many of them are young men who have been reared in 
the east, possess good educations and are in our midst only 
by force of adverse circumstances. The world sees only 
the dark side of their life and nature, but let those who 
look upon the average Montana cowboy as a drunken, 
rough, half-civilized creature hesitate ere they express 
their opinion, for let the truth only be known and they will 
appear in a far different light, as should opportunity arise 
that self-same cowboy will prove himself the truest friend, 
the kindest nurse or the most generous benefactor imagin- 
able, and beneath that wide sombrero will be found a 
brain of activity and under that coarse flannel garment a 
heart beating with kindness for a friend and overflowing 
with generosity for a brother in need. 

I may be peculiar in my likes and dislikes, "cranky" in 
the eye of the world, or rough and uncouth in the opinion 
of the "cod-fish aristocracy" but nevertheless I would 
rather to-day be the "Aunty," "Mother" or "Cattle Queen" 
of the Montana cowboys than sit upon the throjie of Queen 



208 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Victoria and direct the movements of all the Prime 
Ministers, Lords of the Clothesline,^ Grand Guards of the 
Back Entrance or Maids in Charge of the Cellar Stairway. 

Both winter and summer all stock wander at will upon 
the vast and almost unbounded ranges and at times 
are found at a distance of from forty to fifty and even 
a hundred miles from the home ranch. 

It is therefore an arduous task to gather the ranchman's 
possessions as the time arrives for the annual shipment of 
"beeves" which usually takes place in October. ^ 

For weeks prior to this event horseman are sent out to 
scour the surrounding country and bring in all animals 
bearing their employer's brand. This work having finally 
been accomplished the work of selecting those suitable 
for shipment is commenced. 

This is termed "cutting out," and is usually done upon 
a large, level piece of prairie land, and is a process which 
requires much skill and expert horsemanship on the part 
of the cowboys. 

When an animal is selected to be "cut out" he is adroitly 
and quietly maneuvered to the outer edge of the large 
"bunch" or herd of stock which have been gathered, and 
and as the proper time arrives the cowboys dash at him, 
and before he is aware of the fact, he is outside of and 
separated from the remainder of the herd; but no sooner 
does he discover his situation than he makes an effort to 
return to his companions. 

At this time does the skill of the cowboy come into 
play. Whilst one rides behind the steer or- animal. 




A Typical Cowboy— Foreman on the "Cattle Queen's" Ranch. 



A STOEY OF PEESONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 209 

another rides beside him, to prevent any sudden change of 
direction that the frightened bovine may choose to make 
in his endeavor to return to the "bunch". 

Often the chase is close and exciting and many 
times the outer circle of a "round-up" will be run 
several times before the beef will be induced to abandon 
the hope of getting back into the midst of the other cattle 
and submit to being driven to the separate herd which is 
being formed of "cut-out" animals, the nucleus of which 
was first formed by gathering together, some little distance 
from the main herd, several gentle cows. 

Those "cut-out" are held under herd until the required 
number is got together, when they are taken to the corral, 
herded in day time and corralled at night until th e time 
of starting for market has arrived. 

All things being ready, such as the providing of a "grub 
wagon," the requisite cooking utensils, provisions, etc., 
the start is made and for the first day or two hard driving 
is the custom. 

For various reasons this is done; first, in order to get 
the stock from their accustomed range whereon they are 
acquainted with the surrounding country and most liable 
to be hard of control; second, to break or accustom them 
to being handled and driven and also to so tire them by 
reason of travel as to make them content to lie down and 
rest at nightfall instead of running off, as they would be 
sure to do were they not fatigued. 

In the morning they are allowed to go out upon the 
range and graze along in the direction they are being 



210 THE CATTLE. QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



driven, for two or three miles, when they will of their own 
accord turn into the trail and travel a few miles, after 
which, having drank their fill of water, they will lie down 
and rest for from two to four hours during the middle of 
the day. 

Starting again they will soon turn from the road or trail 
and take their afternoon feed, after which they are rounded 
up for the night. Here they are herded during the time 
which intervenes before the following morning's start, 
one or more men remaining constantly in the saddle, being 
relieved at regular intervals by relays from the camp. 

The herd soon becomes accustomed to following the 
trail and unless some incident of an unusual character 
occurs but little trouble is experienced after the first day 
or two of the journey. 

Beeves being thus driven will at times become frightened 
and huddle together and commence running in a circle, or, 
as a cowboy or ranchman would term it, begin "milling." 

This proceedure is very injurious to the stock, as they 
become frightened and over-heated, and but a short time 
of "milling" will reduce the value of a "bunch" of beeves 
several hundred dollars. When cattle once get frightened 
and started in this way they can best be stayed by the 
cowboy standing at a distance and shouting or singing to 

them. 

Another event to be carefully guarded against at all 
times is a "stampede." At times during rainy and stormy 
seasons herds of cattle are apt to form this habit, and when 
once they have broken from control it is very hard to again 




";>x '"w "'T-!"",w"""'^'K'ii 




A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 211 

quiet them. 

At times, as they are quietly at rest during the night, 
the least unusual occurrence, such as the breaking of a dry 
weed or stick, or a sudden and near flash of lightning, will 
start the herd, as if by magic, all in an instant, upon a 
wild, mad rush, and woe to the horse, or man, or camp that 
may be in their path. 

The only possible safety to the cowboy is to mount and 
ride with them until such time as it becomes possible for 
him to get outside the stampeding column. 

It is customary to train the herd to listen to the sound 
of the herder's voice as he sings. Those unfamiliar with 
the stock business may discredit the statement, but never- 
theless it is a fact that the wildest herd, after becoming 
accustomed to the singing of the cowboy, will not start to 
run as long as they can distinctly hear the herder's voice; 
but if by chance the herd gets off on a real stampede it is 
then only by bold and daring riding that they are checked 
and put under control. 

The instant the herd starts the cowboy urges his horse 
at full speed down the column and endeavors to overtake 
the leaders, which he does not attempt to stop suddenly 
but rather seeks to turn gradually to the right or left, 
allowing them to run in a circle which is gradually narrowed 
down as fast as possible until the herd is rushing wildly 
round and round on as small a piece of ground as is possible 
for them to occupy, or, in other words, until they have 
engaged in "milling." 

Then the cowboy begins his song and shouts and soon 



212 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

they quiet and again are gotten under control, after which 
they are either held where stopped until daylight or taken 
to a new bed-ground at once. 

Often a herd becomes scattered and, separating, run in 
different directions, in which case great labor is necessary 
to again collect them, as some will at times continue their 
flight until a distance as great as twenty or thirty miles 
has been traversed. 

Many times great loss in numbers and condition is 
sustained by a single stampede, and a herd when once in 
the habit of running soon become unmanageable. Hence 
great caution is exercised in the handling of the bunch 
while upon the road to market and the cowboy must at all 
times be alert, wide awake and attentive to duty. 

Arriving at the shipping point the cattle are placed 
within the yards provided for their reception and soon are 
loaded upon the cars and on their way to the eastern 
market. 

The rearing, handling and shipping of horses is in the 
main accomplished by the same methods as that of the 
cattle business, while the business of sheep raising varies 
only in the mere points of a constant herder for the "band," 
and the shearing of the animals before they are shipped. 

The leading natural divisions of the State of Montana, 
as to settlement, eligible for homes and farming operations, 
are the following valleys. The Missouri valley, extending 
from the three forks of the Missouri to the Gate of the 
Mountains, a large and fertile valley productive of large 
and fine horticultural crops; the valleys of Deer Lodge and 



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A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 213 



Bitter Root, both very extensive, and that of the Flathead, 
lying between the main range of the Eockies and the 
Canibet mountains, this being a valley in which fine crops 
are grown without the need of irrigation; the Gallatin 
valley, containing in round numbers 1,200 square miles; 
the valley of the Madison, perhaps 100 miles in length, 
exclusive of parts of the river that are canyons ;the Jefferson, 
about the same size and including the valley of the Ruby; 
and the Yellowstone, extending from the eastern boundary 
of the State to the National Park on the south central line 
of Montana, perhaps 500 miles in length. 

The vast cattle and sheep ranges of Montana are world 
famous, bu^ it also may be said that of all the states of t he 
Union, Montana is the best favored by nature with 
facilities for successful farming, for the reason that the 
raising of stoc k as a by-product can be most profitably 
pursued. 

In the state are millions of acres of land which will 
return annual crops of grain — land as fertile as can be found 
in any state, and situated along irrigation systems which 
are never failing in the supply of water when it is needed 

For every one of these millions of acres of desirable 
farming land there are near by ten acres of grazing lands 
and upon the heavy grasses thereon growing hor ses, cattle 
and sheep may feed and grow fat. 

In the eastern states the care of a few head of stock does 
not interfere with the sowing of seed or the gathering of 
crops, but the farmer grudgingly gives up even one acre of 
land to his stock. In Montana this is not necessary. Every 



214 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



good farming valley is flanked by green foothills where 
sheep, horses and cattle may feed, and the land is so 
plentiful that the securing of pasturage is an easy matter. 
As long as the world stands the people will eat meat, and 
so long will there be a market for cattle and sheep; they 
are the secret of the success of the thrifty farmer and the 
source of his wealth ; they can be raised in Montana much 
cheaper than in the eastern states, and good farming lands 
can be bought at a very low price. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 215 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Return from the States to Bannack — Nursing — Life 
IN Helena — My Savings Taken from Me — Cooking 
FOR the Miners — Marriage— Discovery of the Drum 
LuMMON Mine — Misfortunes — Engage in the Cattle 
Industry. 

Bannack, at which I stopped on my return from caring 
for the injured miner on the trip to his home in St. Louis, 
was a place busy with pioneer life. 

The mines were paying well, the men who worked them 
were making enormous wages, and in consequence all was 
life and activity, but even though a more bustling and 
wide-awake town would have been hard to find, still as I 
reached the place and learned of my brother's absence a 
feeling of loneliness and homesickness was experienced 
such as I had never before known. 

Although during my entire life I had been buffeted 



216 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

about by circumstances, hurried hither and thither by the 
decrees of Fate and pushed forward along unknown paths 
by uncontrollable events, still never before, with the ex- 
ception of the time I was held captive by the Indians, had 
I been completely separated from the presence of a relative, 
and now that I found myself so situated a feeling of 
despondency settled upon me which was only shaken off 
by the greatest effort. 

The first thing to do to bring about this result was of 
course, womanlike, to indulge in a "good cry," following 
which I brushed away the tears from my red and swollen 
eyes and resolved to fight the battle of life courageously, 
even if alone. 

I was not without funds neither was I without friends, 
and but a few days sufficed to see me comfortably situated 
in the home of an acquaintance in the capacity of house- 
keeper and nurse of a kind, respectable lady. 

My knowledge of the care of the sick was at this time 
but limited, but had I searched for years for an opportunity 
to familiarize myself with this particular line of work I 
doubt very much whether I could possibly have found a 
place where I would have been able to learn as much in so 
short a time as here, for, without the slightest disrespect 
for the dear lady whom I cared for, I will say that she either 
in reality or imagination was afflicted with every disease 
known to the medical profession. 

The pain from a corn on her little toe would scarcely be 
quieted before her body would be tortured with the more 
severe ailment of infiammatory rheumatism; a slight cold 



A STORY OF PEESONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 217 

in the morning usually resulted — in her opinion — in a 
severe attack of pneumonia in the afternoon ; typhoid fever 
and diptheria were almost daily visitors; symptoms of 
peritonetis and whooping cough usually gave evidence of 
their presence immediately following breakfast and supper 
respectively; as a desert for dinner blood poisoning or 
small pox was usually announced, while for an afternoon 
amusement a slight attack of consumption or softening of 
the brain would be indulged in. 

Thus was I kept busy, engaged in the application of every 
known remedy and treatment for these various ailments, 
until at last as spring approached and I gr-aduated from 
this nurse's training school with a case of obstetrics — it 
was an 8-pound boy; mother and child as well as could be 
expected — I found myself well fitted for the work of 
nursing, and soon after by the help of a friend and with 
the recommendation of the physician under whose direction 
I had, alone and unaided, so successfully conducted a 
general ''hospital" during the winter months, secured a 
position as under nurse for the leading physician of Helena, 
to which city, with the coming of spring I removed. 

I was very fortunate in securing a home with a splendid 
family and also in the way of finding employment. 
Nurses were quite scarce and in consequence my services 
were much sought after and I received liberal compensa- 
tior ;:Gr my work, $25 per week being the amount I usually 
received for caring for the sick. 

All went well with me in my new home and occupation 
for nearly a year and I had succeeded in saving a neat little 



218 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

sum of money "for a rainy day" when in February of the 
following year misfortune again overtook me and, as was 
the case with many others, my savings were taken from me 
and I was again left penniless and alone. 

The event which brought about this condition occurred 
upon a cold, windy and blustering night in the month 
mentioned. By the bedside of a sick lady I was keeping 
watch, when, as the hour of three in the morning was about 
to be recorded by the hands of the little clock which was 
busily ticking upon a small stand by my side, through the 
small window on the opposite side of the room there 
suddenly flashed the ruddy glow of a distant flame. 

Almost simultaneous therewith came the alarm of fire 
and as I peered through the glass into the storm without I 
could see the hurrying of men, women and children as 
they made their way in the direction of the conflagration. 

Soon the flames, fanned by the busy winds gained head- 
way and leaped high in the air, devouring with their fiery 
tongue every article, surmounting every obstacle, envelop- 
ing all within their path, and as the morning sun arose and 
shed light upon the scene nothing but complete and utter 
devastation lay in the path over which they had traversed. 

Starting at the extreme upper end of the town, in a 
neighborhood thickly populated by Chinese and known 
as "Chinatown," the flames had burned a path the 
entire length of the city, destroying completely every 
dwelling, barn or other building along the line and paused 
in their work of destruction only when the farther limits 
of the town were reached. 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 219 

So rapid was their progress, owing to the prevalence of 
the high winds, that nothing could be saved from the 
houses within the destroyed district, even though several 
persons lost their lives in an attempt to rescue their 
belongings. 

Directly in the path of the conflagration was situated 
the house of the family with whom I made my home and 
with them did I share the loss of every possession, only 
excepting the clothes worn at the time of the disaster. 

My little savings — some few hundred dollars — together 
with every article of clothing, the carpet and furniture of 
my room and all else I claimed as my own and for the 
possession of which I had forfeited many a night of sleep 
and labored many an hour, week and month, were 
completely and irretrievably lost and once again I stood 
penniless and alone, far from home and relatives. 

As I stood that night pressing my face closely against 
the frosty pane and could see those fierce flames traveling 
on and on, never halting or swerving from their course, I 
knew full well that in all probability the home I had 
learned to love so well would be destroyed, and with it my 
hard-earned savings; into that sick room, stealthily crept 
the Angel of Death, leaving me with the emaciated form 
of the dead woman as a companion. 

Was it a wonder, dear reader, that amid such surround- 
ings and under such circumstances I should feel that my 
cup of bitterness was filled to overflowing ? 

Such were my feelings, I am free to admit, and though 
in after years I have stood by the side of many a dying 



220 I'HE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

person and witnessed the flight of spirit from the body of 
many an unfortunate being, still never has the presence of 
Death seemed so close nor life so little worth living as it 
did then. 

Now that my home in Helena was destroyed, the 
summons of a friend to her bedside at Silver City a mining 
camp some twelve miles distant, was accepted and soon 
after the fire I changed my abode to that place. 

During the early spring months I made my home with 
this friend, but in May a new life opened for me. 

In the mining districts, during the time of which I 
write, it was the custom of the miners to work in their 
properties during the summer months only, suspending 
operations as cold and stormy weather approached and 
resuming again as early in the spring as the weather would 
warrant. 

Most of these men were either unmarried or had left 
their wives and families in the eastern States, and conse- 
quently a practice prevailed of employing a cook for the 
camp, all paying a proportionate amount toward defraying 
the expense. 

The miners at Canyon Creek had, ere spring work in the 
mine commenced, learned of my misfortune in losing my 
possessions at Helena, and prompted by kindness and a 
desire to aid me — as well as by a craving for good cooking 
I firmly believe — placed the situation before me for 
acceptance, and, prompted by kindness and a desire to see 
these hardworking men as comfortable as possible — as well 
as a craving for the $75 per month, I know to be a fact, — 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 221 



I promptly accepted the offer and with the coming of the 
month of May assumed the duties of "chief cook and 
bottle washer" of the Canyon Creek miners — the camp at 
which I so officiated being comprised of eighteen men. 

Here I remained during the summer and winter until 
just before Christmas when I again returned to Helena for 
a couple of weeks, at the end of which time I became the 
wife of Mr. Nat. Collins, whom I had been acquainted 
with for a period of about two years. 

Mr. Collins was the owner of a mine at Silver City, near 
where I had been employed as cook, and immediately 
following our marriage, which occurred on New Year's Eve, 
1874, we returned to his home at the mines. 

Arriving at our new home we at once commenced house- 
keeping by the purchasing of a large supply of provisions, 
and Mr. Collins also among other things bought a small 
cow. 

While this latter fact may not to the reader appear at 
first glance as an important event, still if they\ but knew 
my feelings of pride as that little, scrawney, homely and 
apparently almost worthless animal was led through the 
deep snow and presented to me as I stood in the doorway 
of that little low log cabin, they would no doubt excuse 
the mention of the fact. Her purchase price was $75 and 
the hay upon which she was fed that winter cost from $20 
to $30 per ton. 

9 

As the weather moderated, with the coming of spring, 
work in Mr. Collins' mine was inaugurated and during the 
summer we prospered and were happy. The mine we 



222 CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

owned— I say "we" for the reason that I consider it timely 
to now lay claim to a share of my husband's property — 
was of the kind known as a placer mine and worked in the 
main by the "hydraulic process." 

As he was at work one day during the summer of which 
I speak he was visited by a neighbor miner, and as Mr, 
Collins worked his visitor sat busily chatting, near the 
head of the "diggings," when a small, smooth and rather 
peculiarly-shaped bowlder attracted their attention as it 
lay amid the dirt and rocks where it had fallen.^ 

Commenting upon its apjpearance and great weight, Mr. 
Collins decided to investigate its nature, and, succeeding 
after a few blows with a heavy sledge, in breaking it in 
pieces, was surprised and elated to find plainly visible to 
the naked eye large particles of pure gold and silver. 

The outward appearance of the rock would, indicate to 
the experienced eye of a practical miner that the bowlder 
had broken from a "lead" some distance from where it was 
found and traveled and rolled, perhaps a few feet at a time, 
down the mountain side to the point where it was finally 
noticed. 

But where that "lead" was located, how it might be 
found and its extent after being found, were questions 
which remained to be solved. 

With the breaking of the bowlder and the consequent 
discovery of its richness as a mineral-bearing rock, Mr. 
Collins' visitor declared his determination to find the main 
body of quartz of which this was a disengaged portion. 

He soon entered upon the work of prospecting, and, 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 223 

going far up the mountain side, began his work. For two 
long years that determined man labored with pick and 
shovel, slowly tunneling his way into the mountain, the 
loosened dirt and rock being conveyed to the mouth of the 
tunnel by means of a wheelbarrow. 

Alone and without a word of cheer, in the face of dis- 
couragements and despite the existing uncertainty as to 
whether his labor was being directed in the right direction, 
this courageous miner toiled slowly on, ever hopeful and 
always fully determined never to give up until he had at 
last found the hidden treasure. 

As time wore on his funds became almost exhausted and 
oven the necessities of flour and meat were with the utmost 
difficulty procured. 

But at last there came the reward so justly earned and 
at the expiration of these many months of untiring labor 
the then almost penniless, but stout-hearted, miner and 
now the wealthiest and best known banker of the city of 
Helena, Montana, in the depths of that so slowly excavated 
tunnel, struck with his well-worn pick the rick gold-bearing 
"lead" of the world-famous Drum Lummon mine. 

This mine, which the discoverer in a few years sold for 
the sum of one million six hundred thousand dollars, has, 
it is estimated, up to the present time produced between 
fifteen and twenty millions of dollars, and those in charge 
of the work at present state that the future prospects of 
the mine are very bright. 

As I have before said, during the summer following our 
marriage all went well with us in our mountain home and 



224 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

the season's work was a profitable one. That year, I 
remember, winter came upon us quite early and by the 
middle of November the ground was thickly covered with 
a blanket of snow. The greater number of the miners in 
the vicinity had suspended operations in their mines and 
abandoned their work until the following spring, so we 
were practically alone in the gulch. 

Quite early on the morning of the 19th day of November 
— the date I shall never forget — Mr. Collins was at work 
with an unruly colt which he had a few days before pur- 
chased, endeavoring to "break" the animal to the halter 
and harness. 

With a long rope the colt was tied to a tree near the 
cabin, and, finding itself securely held by the rope, was 
franticly struggling to break the fastenings which held it. 
Finally, with a series of quick and desperate plunges, the 
animal circled about the tree, and Mr. Collins, in endeavor- 
ing to get from its path, slipped and fell. His right leg 
became entangled in the rope and when at last disengaged 
it was found that the limb, was badly bruised and terribly 
shattered. 

As best I could I half carried and half dragged him to 
the cabin and after repeated efforts succeeded in placing 
him upon the bed. With bandages torn from the bed- 
clothes I bound his injured limb and in every way possible 
sought to alleviate his pain and suffering for the time 
being, intending to leave him alone for a few hours while I 
went for medical assistance. 

As I was about to start, he asked for a drink of water, 



A STOEY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 225 

and taking the pail I started for the spring which supplied 
the cabin and which was located some twenty or thirty 
rods down the steep bank, near the bottom of the gulch. 

The path leading to the spring was, in the summer even, 
a steep and difficult one to traverse, but now that snow had 
fallen, ice had formed upon its surface from top to bottom 
and only with the utmost difficulty could it be traveled. 

As I neared the spring I lost my footing and went 
sliding and rolling to the very edge of the water. Hastily 
scrambling to my feet, I started to step forward to fill the 
pail which I still held in my hand, but the first step was 
my last, for as I threw my weight upon my left foot I sank 
to the ground sick and faint with pain, for in falling my 
left ankle had been shattered and splintered. 

As I regained consciousness I crept to the spring, and 
partially filling the pail with water, turned and started on 
the painful journey to the cabin. 

Creeping on my hands and knees up that steep, slippery 
path, suffering untold agony from the pain in my broken 
ankle, I finally reached the door and at last managed, after 
many trials, to get upon the bed. 

By this time both Mr. Collins' broken leg and my 
shattered ankle had swollen to an enormous size and we 
were both almost frantic and delerious from pain. Unable 
to move, even so much as to procure food or replenish the 
fire with fuel we thus lay for two long, weary and tiresome 
days and nights, at the end of which time there came at 
the door of our cabin a gentle rapping. 

Bidding the visitor enter, the door opened and from the 



226 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

cold and storm without crept in a half famished, half 
frozen Chinaman, known throughout the camp as "Old 
John." Seeing us lying upon the bed, perceiving the lack 
of warmth within the cabin, and observing at a glance that 
all was not well with us, his first words were, "Missy sickee. 
John sorry muchee. Me helpee you," and at once he set 
about starting a fire, after which he brought us food and 
administered to our wants as best he could and then hurried 
away for other help. 

But a few hours passed ere our cabin was half filled with 
sympathizing miner friends and with the coming of a 
physician who had been summoned from Helena we were 
relieved from our suffering to as great an extent as lay 
within the power of human hands. 

A few days later witnessed our departure for the hospital 
at Helena, both of us being conveyed to that place upon a 
bed and attended by our kind-hearted miner neighbors. 
This was, as I have previously said, in the month cf 
November, but our return journey was not accomplished 
until a greater part of the month of May had come and 
gone, and when we again reached our little cabin the buck- 
skin sack in which was contained our little store of gold 
dust was lighter by just $1,500. 

But "it never rains but it pours" was to prove true in 
this case as in nearly all others, and ere we had fairly 
finished our fir&t meal after our arrival home a terrific 
downpour of water carried upon its crest the large reservoir 
owned by Mr. Collins, which was situated some distance 
up the gulch and employed to hold a supply of water with 



A STORY OF PEESONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 227 

which to operate his mine, and with it went nearly a mile 
of sluice boxes. The property was worth, at a conservative 
estimate, fully $800 to $1,000. 

These events, following so closely upon one another as 
they did, as a natural consequence greatly discouraged and 
disheartened us and we at once decided to discontinue the 
business of mining and engage in that of cattle raising. A 
purchaser for our mine was found in a company of China- 
men and in the August following the property was sold. 

•By November our cattle had been bought and in that 
month we took up our residence on a rented ranch in the 
Prickly Pear Valley, about eight miles from our former 
home, with a "bunch" of cattle numbering 180 head. 

The winter was an unusually severe one. Snow and 
storms, high winds and blinding blasts were the order of 
the day and with the coming of spring the prairies were 
seen thickly dotted with the dead bodies of famished and 
frozen animals. 

Our loss that year was very heavy indeed, but still we 
were hopeful for the future, and during the following 
summer labored diligently in an effort to prepare for the 
coming season of cold and snow, but again the storms were 
frequent and severe and many head of stock were lost from 
our little '"bunch." 

The following spring Mr. Collins decided to search for a 
more favored locality and, having heard much in favor of 
the Teton Valley, visited this locality and returned very 
favorably impressed with the outlook. 

Gathering our cattle for the start, we were about to 



228 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

undertake the journey to our new home, when Mr. Collins 
was taken very suddenly ill and had to be taken to the 
hospital at Helena for medical treatment, but after his 
recovery we proceeded on our travels and on the 3rd day of 
August we arrived at Old Agency, Choteau County, now 
Choteau, Teton County, locating at a point about midway 
of the beautiful Teton Valley and distant some one-half to 
three-fourths of a mile from the present sight of the village 
of Choteau. 

Of my life since that date much might be written were 
details indulged in, but this I shall not attempt, but on the 
contrary shall only refer to a few of the events which are 
the most closely connected with the history of the Teton 
Valley and the town of Choteau, concluding with a short 
account of my first shipment of cattle and the events which 
led to the possession by me of the title of "Cattle Queen 
of Montana." 



( 



A STOKY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 229 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Teton Valley — Choteau — The Murder of Mrs 
Armstrong and Mr. Morgan — Ou r First Sermon — 
The Terrible Fate of Our First Resident Physician 
— Move to Willow Creek — An Invitation. 

The Teton Valley was at the time of our first visiting it, 
and is at present, a locality destined by nature as one 
well adapted to the raising of stock. 

In extent it is about eight miles in width and fifteen 
miles in length, abundant in hearty and nutritious grasses, 
well watered with clear, cool and swift-running streams 
and bounded with verdant foothills peculiarly adapted to 
the sheltering of stock in the severe winter season. 

Timber for structures and fuel is quite easily procured 
and, withal, a more fertile and favo red spot would be hard 
of finding, within the boundaries of Montana at least. 

Midway in the valley, upon the banks of the Teton river, 



230 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

is located the pretty little village of Choteau — a wide- 
awake, enterprising Montana town of about five hundred 
souls, and it was at this place, consisting then of but a 
single store an d one or two houses, that my only daughter 
was born in November of 1881, such event being looked 
upon by the few settlers in that locality at that time as 
quite an important one, inasmuch as the little one was the 
first white child to claim Choteau as a birthplace. 

A few months prior to the birth of my little daughter, 
there was enacted, a few miles from our home, one of the 
most brutal and bloody murders ever coming under my 
notice. 

At the forks of the Teton and Muddy rivers, some twenty 
or twenty-five miles from Choteau, lived a widow lady, 
named Mrs. Armstrong, in company with two little adopted 
half-breed Indian girls, and her own son, a young man 
some twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. 

As an inmate of the house was also a gentleman named 
Morgan, in company with whom Mrs. Armstrong was 
interested in the ownership of a number of head of horses 
and cattle. 

About the first of July there came to the house a man 
who claimed to be in search of lost stock. He remained 
in the neighborhood several days, frequently visiting the 
house at meal times and partaking of the food so willingly 
offered him, and was entertained as a friend, Mr. Morgan 
even going with him on various trips in search of the lost 
stock of which he told. 

On the seventh day of July, 1881, the stranger was at 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 231 

the house for supper and accepted an invitation to remain 
during the night. 

The house was built of logs, and in the upper story of 
the same Mr. Morgan had his bed, Mrs. Armstrong and the 
little girls occupying apartments on the ground floor. 
The dwelling was as yet unfinished and for this reason a 
rude ladder on the outside was used by which to mount to 
the floor above, instead of a stairway. 

After a pleasant chat during the evening hours, all 
retired, the stranger sharing with Mr. Morgan the bed in 
the room on the upper floor. 

Just as the morning's light announced the approach of 
day, Mrs. Armstrong and the little ones were awakened by 
the report of a discharged firearm, and as the older girl ran 
from the house to ascertain from whence the sound came, 
the stranger was in the act of descending the ladder, and 
in a rough voice commanded her to return. 

The little one, badly frightened, obeyed the command 
and flew to the side of her mother. The man proceeded 
around the house, silently entered a back door, and as Mrs. 
Armstrong stood peering out of the front window in an 
effort to ascertain his whereabouts, raised his rifle and shot 
the defenseless woman in the back, killing her almost 
instantly. 

Grabbing the older girl he commanded her to inform him 
as to the whereabouts of the valuables and funds of the 
household, at the same time threatening her life if she 
refused. i 

She told him where these articles were to be found, and 



232 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



as he engaged in the search, crept from the house. Her 
first thought was of Mr. Morgan, and creeping up the 
ladder she peered into the room above, and there, on the 
bed where the murderer had shot him, was the" bleeding 
body of the man she sought. 

Descending to the ground, little Maggie grasped the 
hand of the other child and fled to the brush along the 
bank of the river — the children during the course of their 
flight falling some fifteen or twenty feet down the steep 
bank to the river-bed below. 

Proceeding a short distance down the stream, they hid 
amid the brush for several hours. Soon after secreting 
themselves, the distant roar of flames and the clouds of 
dense smoke told them of the firing of the house and the 
destruction of their home, but so frightened were the little 
ones that they dared not move lest they be discovered by 
the brute from whose bloody hands they had by rare good 
fortune escaped. 

Late that afternoon the son of the murdered woman, in 
company with a party of cowboys, returned from a ride 
upon the range and discovered the condition of affairs at 
the house. 

As the poor boy neared the smoking ruins and, amid the 
ashes and half -burned logs, could discern the charred and 
blackened bodies of his dear mother and the murdered man, 
his grief was almost uncontrollable 

Not knowing, of course, the particulars of the terrible 
tragedy, he at once came to the conclusion that they had 
been burned while they slept — but when in a few hours 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 233 

thereafter he became aware of the true version of the affair, 
his grief and sorrow knew no bounds and with moans and 
cries of anguish he bemoaned his dear mother's death and 
with tears streaming down his cheeks besought his com- 
panions to avenge the same. 

The little girls, after several hours of hiding, became 
tired and hungry and finally ventured forth from their 
retreat, and finding a gentle horse picketed near by the 
spot where the house had stood, after many efforts 
succeeded in mounting the animal and started to the house 
of the nearest neighbor — some fifteen miles distant. 

On the way they met the gentleman to whose home they 
were going, and told him of their terrible experience. 
Bidding the children proceed onward until the house was 
reached, he rode with speed to the scene of the tragedy, 
and finding the situation as described by the children, he 
hastened on to Choteau to give the alarm. 

That evening a man answering the description given by 
the children and who had during the day acted in a very 
suspicious manner about the town, was arrested at the 
tepee of an Indian family, about a mile from the town. 

The man positively declared lack of knowledge or 
implication in the event, but nevertheless the children were 
zeni for the following day, and as a test of their ability to 
identify the murderer, the accused man was placed in the 
ranks of a long line of men and the children led along the 
front of the same and asked to select, if he be among the 
number, the man who committed the bloody deed. 

Without the slightest hesitancy the guilty man was 



234 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



pointed out. Then upon the long counter of the village 
store was laid in line the rifles of all present, among them 
being the one carried by the prisoner at the time of his 

capture. 

As the older girl examined the firearms she with equal 
certainty selected one near the center of the line, stating 
that she was certain of its identity owing to the presence 
on the "stock" of a bright brass plate, which as it glistened 
in the light had attracted her attention the morning of the 
murder as the man carried the weapon in his hand while 
descending the ladder at the home. 

The evidence was considered sufficient and conclusive, 
the accused was given a trial, pronounced guilty and that 
night, fearing lest violence might be done the condemned 
man, the sheriff departed with his prisoner for Fort Benton, 
that being the nearest point at which might be found a 

suitable jail. 

A large cottonwood tree stands near the crossing of 
Spring Creek by the Fort Benton road, some two miles 
from the village of Choteau. Kumor has it that from the 
limb of that tree was once suspended by a stout rope the 
body of a man who had foully murdered a defenseless man 
and woman, and while the warm life blood was still trickling 
from their ghastly wounds robbed them of their money and 
valuables and then, as a fitting completion of his brutal 
work, fired their home and allowed the flames to feast 
upon their dead bodies. 

Whether such report was true or not I could not for a 
certainty state, inasmuch as I was not an eye witness to 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 235 

the event, but be that as it may, I do feel safe in saying 
without fear of contradiction, that in case such an event 
did occur it would be safe to wager that the body was not 
suspended between the limb above and the earth below by 
a rope tied about the waist of the man. 

The death of Mrs. Armstrong in such a terrible manner, 
left the little girls Annie and Maggie — aged respectively 7 
and 11 years — without a home or a mother's care. 

Prior to the terrible event the lady and I had been the 
best of friends and passed many and many an hour in each 
other's company, and at once I offered the little girls a 
shelter and home beneath my roof. The older one, Maggie, 
remained with me for several years, finally marrying and 
going to a home of her own, while the younger girl was 
taken by a kind lady of Helena and there reared. 

Our life during the first few years we were residents of 
the Teton Valley was indeed a lonesome one. Settlers 
were "few and far between" and for over a year after I first 
made this section of country my home I was not offered 
the opportunity of speaking to or even gaining sight of a 
white woman. 

Our only neighbors and associates were Indians — and 
I must say that these people were very kind and obliging 
and the best of neighbors. But still at times as I went 
about my work in my little log cabin there would come 
upon me a longing for the sight of a white woman and I 
could have covered with kisses and clasped in my arms 
with a feeling of sincere welcome the ugliest and homeliest 
woman on earth provided she could speak my own language. 



236 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

In our business of stock raising we prospered and as we 
saw our little bunch of stock increasing year by year and 
witnessed the coming of an occassional new settler we 
were content and withal happy with our lot, and when at 
last the little settlement had increased in size and importance 
to a sufficient degree to warrant the locating in our midst 
of a resident physician and we were able to occasionally 
listen to the preaching of the Word of God we felt that 
indeed we were a favored people and that soon would we 
be in the midst of civilization. 

Our first sermon was from the lips of Rev. W. W. Van 
Orsdel of Helena, now a resident of Great Falls and 
Presiding Elder of one of the largest districts in Montana. 
He came to us in that far out-of-the-way place where as 
yet no other missionary had ventured, and his songs of 
praise and words of divine truth gladdened our hearts and 
cheered us on as nothing else could have done. 

There in that little log hut, as he stood before his little 
audience and told of the kindness and love of Jesus there 
appeared to come to him as he spoke an inspiration from 
the throne of God and when, in conclusion, he invoked the 
Divine blessing upon our heads and prayed that God might 
keep over us a watchful eye and so guide our steps as to 
lead us safely on to Everlasting Life, all felt the influence 
of His presence and went forth to their homes and duties 
happy in spirit and light of heart, and with a kindly and 
loving feeling for the good and noble man who had come 
to our midst with the glad tidings, and from that day co this 
has "Brother Van," as he is familiarly called, been held in 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 237 

reverence by the settlers of this section. 

Our first resident physician was a gentleman bearing the 
name of Dr. Smith. He had formerly been an army 
physician and came to our settlement from Fort Shaw, 
where he had been stationed for several years prior to his 
coming to our section. 

"The Doctor," as all called him, was a kind-hearted, 
genial and accommodating gentleman, always ready and 
willing to undergo any and all hardships and exposure to 
reach the bedside of a sick person, and in consequence soon 
won the good will and esteem of the settlers. 

While his health was quite poor and notwithstanding 
the fact that he was far from being a stout and rugged 
man, still he was very active and energetic and always took 
a leading part in any and every public enterprise which he 
thought would further the advancement or prosperity of 
the little town or settlement wherein he made his home, 
and thus it was that while engaged in a work for others 
he lost his life some year and a half following his coming 
to us. 

As the settlement grew slowly in size there finally came 
a time when the more enterprising and ambitious ones 
formed the idea that Choteau county should be divided 
and that our little town was entitled to the distinction of 
being the county seat of the new county which it was 
proposed should bear the name of Teton; and it was 
also proposed that the name of the little village which was 
in this manner to assume the position of capital of the new 
county should be changed from Old Agency to that of 



238 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

Choteau. 

This change was finally brought about, and it was while 
engaged in the work upon this project that Dr. Smith lost 
his life. 

The territory to be effected by the proposed change was 
a large one and it became necessary in order to secure the 
names of the scattered settlers to a petition praying for an 
election at which the question might be voted upon, for 
men to ride from point to point and from settlement to 
settlement and secure signatures. 

On a cold and stormy day in the late fall, in company 
with a companion, "The Doctor" started from his home to 
visit the Sun River settlement, a journey of some forty 
miles. While riding at a brisk canter across the prairies a 
few miles from the starting point the horse upon which he 
was mounted stepped with his front feet into a badger hole, 
stumbled and fell, throwing his rider violently to the 
ground which was solidly frozen and as hard as rock. 

The unfortunate man lay stunned and unconscious where 
he fell for a considerable time but finally revived, when it 
was found that one of his limbs was badly broken. 

Taking the saddle from the horse the injured man had 
been riding, his companion placed it under the doctor's 
head and then taking his own overcoat from his body he 
wrapped it closely about the body of the sujffering man. In 
this way he made the doctor as comfortable as possible 
and then mounting his horse rode hurriedly to town for 
help. Willing men soon after his arrival were on the way 
to the rescue with a team and sleigh, but even as they 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 239 

started from town the storm had increased in violence and 
soon became so blinding as to obliterate all tracks and 
render impossible of accomplishment the work of finding 
the man for whom they searched. 

During the entire night, as the searching party wandered 
here and there about the prairies, with difiiculty battling 
with the cutting blasts of the storm, but still continuing 
the search with praiseworthy bravery and courageousness, 
that poor suffering man lay far out upon the bleak prairie, 
unable to move and with almost superhuman effort fighting 
from his side large blood-thirsty wolves who gathered about 
him and whom he could only keep at a distance by swing- 
ing about his body with one hand, as he lay upon his side, 
a large bright colored wool scarf which he chanced to wear, 
and not until daylight and the ab atement of the storm had 
come to the aid of the party of searchers was his where- 
abouts discovered. 

By this time he was so chilled and benumbed and com- 
pletely exhausted by reason of the terrible ordeal through 
which he had passed that the effects of the night's experi- 
ence were more than his body could recover from and a 
few weeks later, after much suffering and pain, he breathed 
his last. 

No words can portray the torture and suffering 
experienced by that poor man, and at times as I watched 
by his bedside and cared for him, 1 could not bat feel that 
a blessing indeed would have been conferred had the 
Angel of Death laid his touch upon the brow of the suffer- 
ing man as he lay that night amid the storm upon th« 



240 CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

bleak, desolate waste of the boundless prairie, rather than 
that he should be allowed to linger and suffer such untold 
agony. 

In 1886, in order to find for our now greatly increased 
bunch of stock, a more extended range — for settlers were 
by this time quite thick in the Valley — we again changed 
the location of our ranch, moving to Willow Creek, where 
we have since resided. 

In addition to the "home ranch" a "hay ranch" was 
purchased and is known as "Hay Coolie." Here during 
the summer is cut and stacked a sufficient amount of hay 
to suffice in the feeding of the weaker animals during the 
winter, who are gathered during the late fall months from 
the range, the remainder of the stock being allowed to 
roam at will among the timber of the mountain sides — 
a distant view of which may be seen in the picture of "'Hay 
Coolie" herewith shown. 

Our "home ranch" is situated at a distance of about one 
and one-half miles from this spot and here we pass our sum- 
mers, and in the winter either reside at "Hay Coolie" or at 
our comfortable little residence in Choteau, some twenty-four 
miles distant, where the advantages of good schooling are 
to be provided for our only child, now a Miss of thirteen. 

My past life of hardship and discomfort is fast fading 
away, as God in His goodness has seen fit to shower upon 
me many a blessing and as I now write I find myself 
surrounded by many a comfort and convenience for which 
in the years of the past I did not dare to hope. 

Kind friends are about me on every side, a loving, 




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A STOKY or PERSONAL EXPEEIENCE IN THE WEST. 241 

indulgent husband is my constant companion, and as I 
watch the growth and development into womanhood of my 
darling child, my only prayer is that I may be given the 
strength to teach her, as my mother taught me, to be ever 
mindful of the opportunities to lend a helping hand to 
those in need and realize the responsibility which God has 
destined should be the possession through life of every 
good and noble woman. 

Before concluding this unpretentious narrative by an 
account of my first shipment of cattle I wish before 
parting with you, kind and indulgent reader, to call your 
attention to but one fact in particular, and that is this: 

The home of the writer is situated on Willow Creek, 
Teton County, Montana, twenty-four miles distant from 
Choteau. Day or night, rain or shine, storm or calm the 
latch-string is always to be found on the outer side of the 
doors, and within will be met a hearty, cordial and sincere 
welcome to all who honor the humble home with their 
presence, and so long as there remains upon the range a 
single hoof bearing the 77 brand its owners will, if 
need be, willingly and cheerfully part with the same in 
order to share with their friends or those in need the 
needed crust of bread. 



242 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Incidents and Events in Connection with My Fikst 
Shipment of Cattle — ''Success to Aunty Collins, 
The Cattle Queen of Montana" — Thanks to the 
Press — A Comment from One of the Leading Papers 
of Montana. 

The Chicago Drovers' Journal, in an issue during 
October, 1891, contained an item of some length, in which 
was to be found the following words: 

" Mrs. Nat. Collins, of Choteau, Mont., is here with " 
" cattle that sold at $3.65 @ $4.00. Mrs. Collins enjoys " 
" the distinction of being the first lady cattle shipper " 
" from Montana to the Chicago market. " 

Whether or not I shall be able to place upon paper a 
comprehensive review of the events which led up to the 
existence of facts prompting the writing of that one 
brief statement, I hardly know, but as I have promised the 






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A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 243 

reader, in a preceeding chapter, to do so, I shall endeavor 
to keep good the promise. 

For many years prior to the date mentioned it had been 
our custom to dispose of our surplus beeves every fall, to 
buyers who came to the ranch and bargained for them. 

This practice was quite general with the ranchmen, but, 
just in order to be contrary, I suppose — as all women have 
the general reputation of being^I at last expressed the 
opinion to my husband that we were not receiving full 
value for our stock by practicing this custom, and at last 
succeeded in inducing him to ship a consignment of beeves 
to the Chicago market. The experiment proved a most 
successful one and the following year found us, as fall 
approached, again preparing to ship to Chicago. 

All went well during the time of gathering and "cutting 
out" the cattle destined for the long journey, but just a 
few days prior to the start for Great Falls, from which 
place the cattle were to go by train, Mr, Collins became 
quite sick and he dare not undertake the hardships of the 
trip, and thus there remained but two things to be done — 
either I must myself accompany the stock or the shipment 
must be abandoned, for it would be folly to trust to a 
stranger the handling of the beeves and the large amount 
of money received from their sale in Chicago. 

For a lady to undertake such a task and carry it through 
to a successful ending was an event as yet unheard of in 
the history of the cattle trade, but notwithstanding this 
fact, I determined to try — no one knows what they can do 
until they try — and therefore, when the time had come for 



244 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

the start, it found me ready, dressed and prepared to mount 
the "grub wagon" and take my place in the procession 
with the lines by which the team was guided in my hands. 

The cowboys in charge of the stock were all well-known 
to me and trustworthy men, and therefore I experienced 
no unusual anxiety as to the trip from the "home ranch" 
to the shipping point, Great Falls, but beyond that I knew 
not what to expect. 

My greatest fear was of the "railroad men." I had 
always heard of them — much as eastern people hear of 
"cowboys" — as a class utterly devoid of the slightest 
dictates of manly instinct; men who would insult, mistreat, 
rob, plunder and even cut the throat of a woman did she 
but dare to show her presence in the "caboose" of their 
train; men who delighted in rowdyish acts, fought regu- 
larly before breakfast and after each meal, washed their 
hands and faces only upon the occasion of their marriage 
or the funeral of a relative — in fact my opinion of these 
men was anything but favorable, and as I have before said, 
I looked upon them in much the same light as do the 
people of the eastern states who know only of the western 
cowboys by the knowledge they have gained from mis- 
leading, trashy and untruthful accounts with which those 
sections have been flooded in past years. 

As would be their experience were they to visit the home 
of the cowboy, from the first day's dealing with the class 
of men of whom I stood in such terrible dread until the 
present date, their conduct has been only that of gentlemen 
— never an insulting word or unkind act, but on the 




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■1-3 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST. 245 

contrary, I have always been treated with the greatest 
respect and accorded every favor within their power to 
bestow. 

After a four day's journey, during which time _ we 
"camped out" wherever night overtook us, I arrived at 
Great Falls. I had previously ordered cars for the recep- 
tion of the stock, but upon arriving there was informed 
that I would be obliged to await the arrival of more stock 
for shipment, as my consignment was not of sufficient 
number to load a full train and, therefore, would not be 
shipped until such time as a sufficient number of cattle 
had arrived to constitute a full train of twenty-two cars, 
each containing twenty-two head of beeves. 

Another difficulty also arose. Among the rules of the 
railroad company, I was informed, was one in particular 
which prohibited the granting of a pass to a lady who 
wished to accompany stock upon a cattle train, or even 
allowing her to ride upon such train provided she paid full 
fare. 

Here indeed was a dilemma. My stock was ready for 
shipment but I could not ship. Expenses were fast 
accumulating and everything was going wrong. 

Not only did I have cattle to ship but, in addition, a 
"band" of horses were to be sent east. Among these was 
a valuable pacer which I had intended to place in the 
hands of an experienced trainer upon my arrival in the 
states, and which I had every reason to believe would at 
some future date return a handsome price. 

As I drove from the city to camp one morning I found 



^46 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

this animal lying at the outskirts of the camp, stone dead. 
Asking as to the manner of its death, I was informed that 
a cowboy had saddled the animal, preparatory to riding it 
and that, becoming frightened, it had reared and fallen 
backward and broken its neck. 

I have during my life passed through many a discourage- 
ment and have been overtaken by many a disheartening 
event, but, without exception, I never experienced a more 
trying time than during those ten days of waiting before 
I finally saw my cattle and horses loaded and safely started 
on their long journey and found myself sitting bolt upright 
on the leather cushions of that hard-riding "caboose" with 
the much-dreaded "railroad men" about me. 

The accident to my highly prized pacer for the time 
unnerved me, and leaving the camp, I wandered to the 
banks of the river, near by, and there, alone and unseen, 
gave vent to my disappointment and discouragement in 
tears and moans. 

But it does a woman good to cry, and when I had 
finished playing baby I arose, with a determination to 
succeed or die, and on the banks of that muddy Missouri 
I vowed to secure my rights and accompany my stock to 
market or, in an attempt to do so, forfeit each and every 
individual head of stock I owned in the, effort to ascertain 
why I should be denied the privilege and right. 

With this determination firmly fixed in my heart I 
returned to camp, took my team and again drove to the 
city. Meeting a representative of a Chicago commission 
firm, whose headquarters were at Great Falls, I told him 



A STORY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST 247 

of my situation and requested him to telegraph the proper 
officials of the railroad at St. Paul, stating the circum- 
stances and requesting permission to travel with my stock. 

This he kindly consented to do, and as a reply the local 
agent of the railway company received instructions to grant 
me a pass, and accompanying the same was a notice to all 
conductors and employes of the train upon which I was to 
travel to "provide for the comfort of Mrs. Nat. Collins, the 
bearer of this pass, in every possible way and treat her with 
all respect due a perfect lady, under penalty of discharge 
upon failure to do so." 

At last the victory was won and from that time forward 
all went as merrily as a marriage bell. 

As the train stood at the station ready to start upon its 
long Journey, upon the platform of the depot was gathered 
a large number of cowboys and ranchmen from various 
sections, who had arrived in the city with stock for ship- 
ment, and as I mounted the steps of the smoke-stained 
"caboose" from that crowd of sturdy men arose a long and 
hearty cheer, and as the signal for departure was given, and 
amid the excitement of the moment as the cowboys waved 
high in the air their broad sombreros, in a clear voice rang 
out the words, "Success to Aunty Collins, The Cattle 
Queen OF Montana." 

From that moment the name has clung to me, and in its 
possession I experience much pride. 

At Minot, North Dakota, a stop was made and the stock 
fed. Again proceeding on our journey, St. Paul was 
reached on schedule time, and here I was called upon, at 



248 THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. 

the parlors of the Merchants Hotel, by several of the 
high officials of the road over whose line I was shipping 
and honored by the presentation of a first-class ticket over 
the line leading to Chicago, to which place I traveled by 
passenger train in advance of my stock. 

Arriving at Chicago, after the expiration of a sufficient 
time in which to wash and attire myself in clean clothing, 
I visited the stock yards and there disposed of my stock, 
receiving in payment therefor a sum several hundred 
dollars in excess of the price I had been offered at the 
ranch and at Great Falls. 

Since that time I have regularly each year accompanied 
my stock to the Chicago market. This proceedure has, as 
a matter of course, occasioned much comment upon the 
part of newspapers and magazines throughout the country, 
inasmuch as it is looked upon as quite unusual for a lady 
to thus pay attention to the details of the business in which 
we are engaged. 

Kindly thanking the press for their many words of praise 
and good cheer, bidding adieu to the indulgent reader who 
has honored this volume by a perusal, and wishing all a 
life of health, prosperity and happiness, I will close my 
story with a clipping from one of the leading papers of 
Montana: 

" Mrs. Nat. Collins has earned for herself the distinction " 
" of being the first and only lady in Montana to " 
" raise, ship and accompany the train bearing her stock " 
" to the Chicago market and personally superintend the " 
" unloading of the animals and their sale, and throughout " 



A STORY OF PERSOITAL EXPERIENCE IK THE WEST. 249 



" the length and breadth of the land she is known as 
" The Cattle Queen of Montana. She is well informed 
" on every subject pertaining to stock raising, and her 
" judgment is often asked by others regarding purchases 
" and other matters pertaining to the industry. Per- 
" sonally Mrs. Collins is a charming lady. There is 
" nothing masculine in her appearance or conversation. 
" Her home life is pleasant and her homes — for she 
" divides her time between a town and country residence 
" — are beautifully furnished. No one would suspect 

when engaging in conversa,tion with the modest and 
' unpretending lady that she was the manager of a large 

stock business — a duty which devolves upon her by 
" reason of her husband's poor health. Her homes are 
" decorated with many specimens of her handiwork. 
" She is an artist of no mean pretensions, and many a 
" charming sketch and bit of coloring are the product of 
" her brush. Socially she is very highly esteemed by all 
" who know her, and in the financial and business 
" centers she commands universal admiration for her 
" thorough knowledge on every subject and the tact she 
" has displayed in the conduct of her affairs, for The 
" Queen is indeed a finanacier and has succeeded in 
" accumulating a fortune. Mrs. Collins is, in fact, a lady 
" of whom Montana may well be justly proud." 



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